Glam Iranian businesswoman busted at LAX, charged with helping regime sell drones, bombs and ammo
A glamorous Iranian businesswoman with a US green card was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport for allegedly trafficking arms on behalf of Tehran.
Shamim Mafi, 44, of Woodland Hills, was taken into custody on Saturday night and charged with brokering deals for Iranian drones, bombs, and millions of rounds of ammunition bound for Sudan, according to the office of the US Attorney for the Central District of California.
“She is charged with a violation of 50 U.S.C. § 1705 for brokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said Sunday, announcing the arrest.
The drones, along with 55,000 bomb fuses, were transferred in deals with the Sudanese Ministry of Defense, which has been fighting in a bloody civil war since 2023.
Iran has been repeatedly accused of violating a United Nations arms embargo amid the Sudanese civil war, with its drones spotted in use by the government forces.
The civil war has claimed between 61,000 to hundreds of thousands of lives as it enters its fourth year, with the UN’s fact-finding mission identifying the recent mass deaths in Darfur as having the “hallmarks of genocide.”
The conflict has also displaced nearly nine million people, making it one of the worst displacement criseson the planet. Phone records indicate that Mafi had direct contact with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) between December 2022 and June 2025.
Prosecutors say Mafi had no legal requisites to oversee such dangerous sales.
Mafi and her company were also accused of purposefully going through channels in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to conduct the sales so as to skirt US detection.
Mafi’s social media accounts show her living the lap of luxury in California and showing off her business trips in Turkey.
Mafi told investigators that she has never been tasked by the MOIS to conduct any activities for Tehran in the US.
A probe into Mafi’s past showed that Tehran had seized properties that she inherited from her father in 2020, with MOIS then directing her to open a business in the US to buy the properties back from the Iranian government, according to the court records.
MOIS had offered to buy for the start-up costs, officials noted.
Mafi had allegedly said that she is “more useful” to MOIS in Iran than in the United States.
The businesswoman was scheduled to fly to Istanbul on Saturday when she was met by law enforcement officers who took her into custody.
Mafi is ultimately accused of violating the Conspiracy to Violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which if convicted of, would lead to a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
The suspect is scheduled to appear at the US District Court in downtown LA on Monday, prosecutors said.
A representative for Mafi could not be immediately reached for comment.
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