A Woodland Hills woman was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday night on suspicion of helping Iran funnel weapons to its proxies in Africa, propping up one of the world’s deadliest conflicts.
Shamim Mafi, 44, was nabbed on charges she brokered the sale of “drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition” between Iran and the Sudanese Armed Forces, First U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli wrote on X Sunday.
The Sudanese military is locked in a bloody civil war that is estimated to have killed upwards of 100,000 people and displaced millions more since 2023, making it the deadliest of the ongoing proxy fights between Gulf State powers.
Mafi, an Iranian immigrant who got a green card in 2016, is alleged to have skirted American sanctions to shepherd munitions between the Iranian regime and its patron. She is the third Angeleno from the city’s vast Iranian diaspora to be collared by the FBI in as many weeks.
Social media posts show Mafi posing with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry at the offices of an arms supplier in Turkey, between candidshots from a Dubai med-spa and glamorous snaps by the beach in Los Angeles.
She is expected to appear in federal court downtown Monday. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.
