Recent court documents reveal Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) may be enlisting criminal gangs for overseas assassinations and kidnappings targeting dissidents and political foes, prompting concerns across the West.
Iran's Covert Operations: Criminal Gangs Unveiled as Assassination Tools
Iran's Covert Operations: Criminal Gangs Unveiled as Assassination Tools
Western intelligence exposes Iran's alleged use of criminal organizations for overseas hit jobs.
Article text:
Recent investigations have returned alarming findings about Iran’s strategy for eliminating dissent abroad, revealing that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has reportedly turned to criminal organizations to execute attacks on foreign soil. Intelligence agencies from the US and Israel have noted a concerning uptick in plots aimed at kidnapping or assassinating journalists, dissidents, and political enemies since 2022. Among the potential targets was even former President Donald Trump.
In the UK, authorities recently arrested several Iranians under suspicion of planning a terrorist attack that appeared to involve the Israeli embassy in London. Newly uncovered court documents from Turkey and the United States shed light on these operations, suggesting that Iran employs criminal gangs to undertake these violent missions—an accusation Tehran has strongly denied. A requests for comment from Iranian officials has gone unanswered.
The name that surfaces most frequently in these documents is Naji Sharifi Zindashti, a well-known Iranian criminal associated with international drug trafficking. He was implicated in the 2017 murder of Saeed Karimian, a television executive in Istanbul who was seen as a threat to the Iranian regime. Karimian was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison by an Iranian court shortly before his assassination.
Zindashti, who fled to Iran after a controversial release from custody in Turkey, was allegedly linked to the assassinations of those out of favor with the Iranian government, including Iranian defector Massoud Molavi, also gunned down in Istanbul. Investigators believe Zindashti’s men were present at both murder scenes, further intertwining organized crime with Iranian intelligence operations.
Despite having been convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to death in Iran over thirty years ago, Zindashti’s escape to Turkey raised questions of his own connections to Iranian intelligence. An investigative journalist, Cengiz Erdinc, emphasized the longstanding relationship between organized crime and Iranian security forces.
Zindashti has repeatedly faced allegations, including involvement in the 2020 kidnapping of Habib Chaab, an Iranian dissident. Furthermore, court documents from 2021 in Minnesota revealed Zindashti’s connections to the Hells Angels biker gang, where he purportedly attempted to orchestrate the assassination of two Iranian defectors.
Overall, the rise of these covert operations points to a more extensive network orchestrated by the IRGC, now collaborating with criminal syndicates like the Thieves-in-Law gang. US and Israeli intelligence sources attribute the planning and implementation of these assassination plots to Unit 840 of the IRGC.
Further complicating matters, the post-Soleimani landscape has seen Iran allegedly orchestrating revenge plots against former US officials associated with their late general's death, including high-profile figures like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. The US and UK governments have responded by imposing sanctions on individuals linked to these nefarious actions, including Zindashti, who claims he does not work for Iranian intelligence.
Security officials in the UK have noted a significant uptick in credible threats linked to Iran, noting arrests in association with Iranian dissidents and recent attacks on media figures reporting on Iranian issues. As criminal organizations act as proxies for the Iranian regime in orchestrating attacks abroad, the worrying trend highlights the difficulties governments face in containing Tehran's increasingly aggressive tactics.
Recent investigations have returned alarming findings about Iran’s strategy for eliminating dissent abroad, revealing that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has reportedly turned to criminal organizations to execute attacks on foreign soil. Intelligence agencies from the US and Israel have noted a concerning uptick in plots aimed at kidnapping or assassinating journalists, dissidents, and political enemies since 2022. Among the potential targets was even former President Donald Trump.
In the UK, authorities recently arrested several Iranians under suspicion of planning a terrorist attack that appeared to involve the Israeli embassy in London. Newly uncovered court documents from Turkey and the United States shed light on these operations, suggesting that Iran employs criminal gangs to undertake these violent missions—an accusation Tehran has strongly denied. A requests for comment from Iranian officials has gone unanswered.
The name that surfaces most frequently in these documents is Naji Sharifi Zindashti, a well-known Iranian criminal associated with international drug trafficking. He was implicated in the 2017 murder of Saeed Karimian, a television executive in Istanbul who was seen as a threat to the Iranian regime. Karimian was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison by an Iranian court shortly before his assassination.
Zindashti, who fled to Iran after a controversial release from custody in Turkey, was allegedly linked to the assassinations of those out of favor with the Iranian government, including Iranian defector Massoud Molavi, also gunned down in Istanbul. Investigators believe Zindashti’s men were present at both murder scenes, further intertwining organized crime with Iranian intelligence operations.
Despite having been convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to death in Iran over thirty years ago, Zindashti’s escape to Turkey raised questions of his own connections to Iranian intelligence. An investigative journalist, Cengiz Erdinc, emphasized the longstanding relationship between organized crime and Iranian security forces.
Zindashti has repeatedly faced allegations, including involvement in the 2020 kidnapping of Habib Chaab, an Iranian dissident. Furthermore, court documents from 2021 in Minnesota revealed Zindashti’s connections to the Hells Angels biker gang, where he purportedly attempted to orchestrate the assassination of two Iranian defectors.
Overall, the rise of these covert operations points to a more extensive network orchestrated by the IRGC, now collaborating with criminal syndicates like the Thieves-in-Law gang. US and Israeli intelligence sources attribute the planning and implementation of these assassination plots to Unit 840 of the IRGC.
Further complicating matters, the post-Soleimani landscape has seen Iran allegedly orchestrating revenge plots against former US officials associated with their late general's death, including high-profile figures like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. The US and UK governments have responded by imposing sanctions on individuals linked to these nefarious actions, including Zindashti, who claims he does not work for Iranian intelligence.
Security officials in the UK have noted a significant uptick in credible threats linked to Iran, noting arrests in association with Iranian dissidents and recent attacks on media figures reporting on Iranian issues. As criminal organizations act as proxies for the Iranian regime in orchestrating attacks abroad, the worrying trend highlights the difficulties governments face in containing Tehran's increasingly aggressive tactics.
