Two men, including a dual Iranian American citizen, have been charged with conspiring to export sensitive technology to Iran.
The technology was used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American troops and injured dozens of other service members earlier in the year.
The big picture: The Justice Department announced the charges, revealing that FBI specialists traced the drone’s navigation system to an Iranian company operated by one of the defendants.
- This defendant allegedly relied on parts and technology funneled into Iran by his co-conspirator.
Go deeper: The defendants were identified as Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, who works at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, and Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, who was arrested in Italy as the Justice Department seeks his extradition to Massachusetts.
- Prosecutors allege that Abedininajafabadi has deep connections to the Iranian government and that his Tehran-based company manufactures navigation systems for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
- They also claimed that he conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws, including creating a front company in Switzerland to procure sensitive technology into Iran.
- Sadeghi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested in Massachusetts and was ordered to remain detained following a court appearance. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
State of play: Both men are charged with export control violations, while Abedininajafabadi separately faces charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran.
Driving the news: The deadly drone attack on a U.S. outpost in northeastern Jordan, known as Tower 22, resulted in the deaths of three soldiers and injuries to more than 40 others. U.S. officials attributed the attack to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias including Kataib Hezbollah.
- The attack involved a one-way drone that crashed into living quarters, killing the soldiers and injuring many more. Tower 22, strategically located between Jordan and Syria, housed about 350 U.S. military personnel at that time.
- Following the attack, the U.S. launched a counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militias and bolstered Tower 22’s defenses.
