Iranian National Caught at LAX Allegedly Trying To Flee After Brokering $70 Million Weapons Deal for Tehran

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Noel Joshua Hadley

While the United States is locked in an ongoing conflict with Iran, an Iranian national was living comfortably in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. But according to federal prosecutors, she wasn’t just living the California dream. She was allegedly brokering tens of millions of dollars in weapons, drones, and ammunition on behalf of the Iranian regime.

And she almost got away.

Federal authorities arrested Shamim Mafi, 44, at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night, just as she was reportedly about to board a flight to Turkey. The charges? Allegedly brokering the sale of Iranian-manufactured Mohajer-6 armed drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition to Sudan’s Ministry of Defense in violation of U.S. sanctions.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced the arrest on X:

The scope of the alleged operation is staggering. According to the criminal complaint, Mafi allegedly brokered a contract worth more than $70.6 million for the sale of Iranian drones alone. On top of that, prosecutors say she helped arrange the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses, 10 million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, and a separate proposed deal for 240 million additional rounds.

Fox News correspondent Matt Finn reported on the details of the arrest:

Fox News reported on the full scope of the case:

Mafi is an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016. She maintains a residence in Woodland Hills and frequently travels to Iran, Turkey, Oman, and other countries.

According to the complaint, Mafi used an Oman-based company called Atlas International Business LLC to facilitate the deals. Payments were allegedly routed through Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to evade sanctions.

Investigators say Mafi maintained approximately 62 bidirectional contacts with an officer from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security between December 2022 and June 2025, and coordinated with figures tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Let that sink in. She was allegedly in regular contact with Iranian intelligence officers and IRGC-connected figures for years, all while living as a permanent resident in the United States. And she never obtained the required U.S. licenses for brokering any of these Iranian defense articles.

The Libs of TikTok account noted one detail that jumped out to many online:

CBS News reported on what Mafi now faces:

If convicted, Mafi faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. She is expected to make her initial appearance on Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated that Mafi “brokered the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan.”

The timing of this arrest is impossible to ignore. The United States is actively engaged in a conflict with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz has been shut down again, and President Trump just convened an emergency meeting over Iran’s latest provocations. Meanwhile, an Iranian national with ties to Tehran’s intelligence services was allegedly running a weapons pipeline right out of Los Angeles.

Twenty years in prison would be the maximum sentence. Given the scale of the alleged operation and its direct connection to the Iranian regime, many will be watching this case very closely.

IN the summer of 2019, I was seated in the wine cellar of a walled Medieval town high above the Dordogne Valley of France, not far from Sarlat-la-Canéda, making phone calls, writing reports. I have given this story in other places and it appears as though you’re about to hear it again. Rob Skiba is a name you that you might be familiar with. Though he had made a name for himself as a Nephilim researcher, more recently Rob had taken a dive into the deep end of the pool via flat earth research. The recorded interviews I conducted between he and Rick Hummer, a fellow flat earth investigator and close friend of his, was published while still occupying that very wine cellar. Read all about it. Chicago Is Not a Mirage.

Word quickly spread. Within a few short weeks, dozens of flat earth researchers began accepting my invite for a private interview, if not a series of interviews. From a 17th-century tower built by King Louis XIV, and with a stunning view of the Alps, I sat down with Robbie Davidson, founder of the Flat Earth International Conferences, conducting multiple sessions. While staying in Dumfries, Scotland, David Weiss agreed to take part in the interviews, as did Bob Knodel of Globebusters. There were others. But when I asked the interviewees to discuss the moments that shaped their lives, among the many PSYOPs, false flag attacks, and hoaxes that were discussed, only these men committed commentary to the false 9/11 narrative.

The resulting recordings ballooned into The Unexpected Cosmology, a book which became a website and was even intended as an anthology. And of course, the following discourse was originally a chapter. It was Walt Disney who stated, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” Those sentiments remain applicable here as well. American Sensationalism: The 9/11 Interviews was always intended to be expanded upon with the inclusion of new researchers. So I’m sorry to say the project became stagnant during the Covid-19 psychodrama. I took a break to tackle other projects. We lost Rob Skiba. Rob offered hours of private conversation regarding his life but we never got around to the big one. 9/11. It was in the cards. Sadly, Bob Knodel died soon afterwards. Voices are being squeezed from an entire generation. Gnosis passes with them.

In the aftermath, the FE community became fractured. People began going their separate ways. Robbie Davidson, among a noted few others who were interviewed for the project, got up and left the movement altogether. It is not my intent to erase his or the contributions of others if only brief. They came, they went, their testimonies remain.

The original vision may have hit roadblocks but it is not forgotten. I expanded this paper a few years later to include testimony from author Pauly Hart, a dear friend of mine. I had wanted to continue that trend every year thereafter but you know how it goes. For the 25th anniversary of the attack I have redirected my efforts to its first large scale expansion, including Andrew Hoy and Darrin Geisinger into the mix. Perhaps others will lend their experiences to the recorder in time.

The following is their report.

Read the 9/11 Interviews

Watch the Interviews