Iranian National Accused of Trafficking Weapons to Sudan, Arrested at LAX

Shamim Mafi, a 44-year-old Woodland Hills resident and Iranian national, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night, accused of helping move Iranian weapons and ammunition into Sudan through a network that prosecutors say stretched from California to Oman.

Federal prosecutors said Mafi became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016 and brokered the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan. The case charges her under 50 U.S.C. § 1705, a sanctions-related statute that carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison if she is convicted.

A criminal complaint dated March 12 says Mafi and an unnamed co-conspirator operated Atlas International Business in Oman, a company prosecutors say received more than $7 million in payments in 2025. The complaint also alleges that Mafi separately arranged the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese Ministry of Defense and submitted a letter of intent to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to buy bomb fuses for Sudan.

The arrest underscores how sanctions evasion cases can unfold far from the battlefield. Sudan’s civil war, now in its fourth year after erupting on April 15, 2023, has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The United Nations says nearly 34 million people need humanitarian support and about 14 million have been displaced as fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, continues to grind on.

The case also fits a broader pattern of U.S. enforcement aimed at Iran-linked procurement and weapons networks. The United States has restricted activities involving Iran under various legal authorities since 1979, and federal agencies continue to warn about drone procurement, sanctions evasion and indirect shipping and finance routes used to move sensitive goods through third countries.

Mafi was expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, April 21, 2026. As of Sunday, a phone number for her could not be located, and it was not known whether she had an attorney who could speak on her behalf.