LONDON: A Pakistani arms trafficker who used a fishing boat to ship ballistic missile parts from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen has been sentenced to 40 years in prison in the United States on five counts.
Muhammad Pahlawan was arrested during a US military operation in the Arabian Sea in January 2024. Two US Navy Seals drowned during this operation, according to US authorities.
Pahlawan’s crew, who worked as fishermen, according to the U.S. case, said they were deceived and unaware of the real plot. At that time, the Houthis launched missile and drone attacks against Israel, claiming they were acting in support of Gazans.
The components found on Pahlawan’s boat were “some of the most sophisticated weapons systems that Iran is proliferating to other terrorist groups,” US federal prosecutors said after his trial.
The 49-year-old was sentenced after being found guilty of five charges, including terrorism offenses and transporting weapons of mass destruction. He was convicted on five counts, a total of 480 months or 40 years.
The eight crew members who testified in court said they had no idea what was inside the large packages on board the boat, named Yunus.
A crew member said that when he asked Pahlawan about it, he was told to mind his own business.
Pahlawan called himself “the living dead” in text messages with his wife in Pakistan, sent days before the January 2024 trip, which would allow him to be arrested.
“Just pray that [we] come back safe and sound,” said the message, used as evidence in court.
“Why are you talking like that, ‘may or may not come back'”, she asked him.
Pahlawan told her, “That is the nature of work, my dear, that is the nature of work.
His last words before departure were: “Keep me in your prayers. May God take me there safe and bring me back safe, okay. Pray.”
The prosecution told the court that Pahlawan received 1,400 million rials (£25,200; $33,274), “as part of a larger operation” financed and coordinated by two Iranian brothers, Yunus and Shahab Mir’kazei. The United States claims that the Mir’kazei brothers are affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Pahlawan made two successful smuggling trips before being arrested: one in October 2023 and a second two months later.
The dozen men he recruited to join him were all from Pakistan and had crossed the border into Iran in search of work.
Before leaving for the voyage in December, the US court heard, the crew had been tasked with loading large packages onto the boat in Chabahar, on Iran’s southern coast.
Then, after five or six days at sea, while near the coast of Somalia, the crew described another boat stopping alongside them at night and having to hand over the cargo.
Crew member Mehandi Hassan told the court there were about five men on the other boat, speaking in a language he did not recognize.
Their next trip, the following month, was to follow the same route. As before, it started in the small port of Konarak before sailing to Chabahar, where the crew had to load heavy boxes on board.
The packages, which the U.S. Navy would later discover, contained Iranian-made ballistic missile parts, anti-ship cruise missile components and a warhead.
He worked with the brothers to prepare the boat for these smuggling voyages, received specific coordinates from them for ship-to-ship transfers, and received multiple payments from them for his role in the smuggling operation.
US federal prosecutors said the components found on Pahlawan’s boat were “some of the most sophisticated weapons systems that Iran is proliferating to other terrorist groups.”
On June 5 this year, Pahlawan was convicted of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists; providing material support to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ weapons of mass destruction program; conspire and transport explosive devices to the Houthis, knowing that these explosives would be used to cause damage; and threatening his crew.
“Pahlawan was not only a seasoned smuggler,” prosecutors said, “he knew what he was smuggling and what it was intended for.”
In a final request to the court for leniency, Pahlawan’s lawyer wrote that Pahlawan’s wife’s life had long been separated from her family due to her marriage to him, and that since her arrest, her life and that of her child had become “extremely difficult and harsh.”
“Since the jury’s verdict, Mr. Pahlawan’s top priority in their telephone conversations has been the well-being of his family,” his lawyer said. “He doesn’t talk about himself or his fate. He cries with worry about what will happen to his wife and child.”
The court found his high sentence was “appropriate due to the nature and circumstances of the offense and the background and characteristics of the accused.”
He was sentenced in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
