Iranian Businesswoman Arrested at LAX in Weapons Sanctions Case

Shamim Mafi, a 44-year-old businesswoman from Woodland Hills with a polished public image, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night and accused of helping move Iran-made weapons into a sanctions-busting pipeline that reached Sudan. The case is striking not just for the allegations, but for the setting: an airport arrest that turned a geopolitical weapons probe into a very local, very immediate federal case.

Federal officials say Mafi brokered the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan. The allegations place her inside a supply chain that prosecutors say violated U.S. sanctions and export-control restrictions aimed at blocking Iran-linked weapons procurement. The complaint ties the alleged activity to arms moving out of Iran and into a country already engulfed in a devastating civil war.

Mafi is reported to have become a lawful permanent resident in 2016. If convicted, she faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Officials said she was expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, keeping the case in the public eye just days after her arrest at LAX.

The broader backdrop matters here. The U.S. Department of Justice has stepped up pressure on Iran-linked procurement networks, including a separate case in the past year involving an Iranian company and two Iranian nationals accused of trying to secure U.S. parts for Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles, providing material support to the IRGC and laundering money. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has also continued to update Iran-related sanctions guidance, including warnings tied to UAV activity and ballistic-missile procurement, as federal agencies try to choke off the pathways used to acquire parts, weapons and financing.

Sudan adds another layer of urgency. The country’s war has been marked by repeated drone and aerial attacks on civilian areas, making any alleged weapons pipeline into that conflict feel less like a distant sanctions matter and more like part of the machinery feeding an active battlefield. In that context, the arrest of a Woodland Hills resident at one of the nation’s busiest airports gave the case a sharp, unsettling edge.