Terrorism
US Navy seized missiles, petroleum products from Iranian military headed for Venezuela and Yemen
The barrels of Iranian petroleum products were found aboard four foreign-flagged tankers headed to Venezuela
December 9, 2021 5:40pm
Updated: December 9, 2021 5:43pm
The U.S. Navy has seized 171 surface-to-air missiles, eight anti-tank missiles, and 1.1 million barrels of petroleum products worth $261 million from Iranian ships in the Arabian sea since 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The shipments of weapons were headed to Iranian-backed militants fighting in Yemen and were organized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization.
The cargo was found by the U.S. Navy Central Command in the Arabian Sea while conducting routine marine security operations in November, 2019 and August, 2020.
The barrels of Iranian petroleum products were found aboard four foreign-flagged tankers headed to Venezuela. The seized products make up the government's largest-ever forfeiture of fuel from Iran.
In August, the DOJ filed a complaint seeking to forfeit the seized weapons. The U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. issued a final order of forfeiture for the shipments on November 15. The petroleum was officially forfeited in October when the U.S. proved that the Iranian military would have profited from the sale.
“The actions of the United States in these two cases strike a resounding blow to the Government of Iran and to the criminal networks supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The Department of Justice will continue to use all available tools to combat the threats posed by terrorist organizations and all those who seek to harm the United States and its allies.”
“These two cases demonstrate that not only can we disrupt the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ ability to finance its operations through petroleum sales, but we can also thwart its ability to use the proceeds of such sales to arm its terrorist proxies and export terrorism abroad,” said Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C.
