LONDON: A Pakistani arms smuggler 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 charges.
Muhammad Pahlawan was detained during a US military operation in the Arabian Sea in January 2024. Two US Navy Seals drowned in that operation, according to US authorities.
Pahlawan’s crew, who worked as fishermen, according to the American case, testified that they had been tricked into participating and were unaware of the true plot. At the time, the Houthis had launched missile and drone attacks against Israel, claiming they were acting in support of Gazans.
The components found on Pahlawan’s ship were “some of the most sophisticated weapons systems that Iran proliferates for 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 has been sentenced on five counts, making 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 aboard the ship, called Yunus.
A crew member said that when he questioned Pahlawan about it, he was told to mind his own business.
Pahlawan referred to himself as the “living dead” in text message exchanges with his wife in Pakistan, sent in the days before the January 2024 trip that would lead to his arrest.
“Just pray that [we] return safely,” said the message, used as evidence in court.
“Why do you talk like that, ‘you may or may not come back,'” he asked.
Pahlawan told her, “That’s the nature of the job, my dear, that’s the nature of the job.”
His last words before setting sail were: “Keep me in your prayers. May God take me there safely and bring me back safely, it’s okay. Pray.”
Prosecutors told the court that Pahlawan received 1.4 billion rials (£25,200; $33,274), “part of a wider operation” financed and coordinated by two Iranian brothers, Yunus and Shahab Mir’kazei. The United States alleges that the Mir’kazei brothers are affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Pahlawan made two successful smuggling trips before being captured: one in October 2023 and the 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 embarking on the December voyage, the US court heard, the crew was tasked with loading large packages onto the ship in Chabahar, on Iran’s southern coast.
Then, after five or six days at sea, when they were near the coast of Somalia, the crew described how another ship stopped next to them at night and they had to deliver the cargo.
Crew member Mehandi Hassan told the court that there were about five men on the other boat speaking in a language he did not recognise.
Their next trip, the following month, was expected to follow the same route. As before, it started in the small port of Konarak before sailing towards Chabahar, where the crew had to load heavy boxes on board.
The packages, as the US 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 ship 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 ship were “some of the most sophisticated weapons systems that Iran proliferates for other terrorist groups.”
On June 5 of this year, Pahlawan was found guilty of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists; provide material support to the weapons of mass destruction program of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps; plotting and transporting explosive devices to the Houthis, knowing that these explosives would be used to cause harm; and threatening his crew.
“Pahlawan was not only an experienced smuggler,” prosecutors said, “he knew what he was smuggling and its intended use.”
In a final plea for leniency to the court, Pahlawan’s lawyer wrote that Pahlawan’s wife’s life had been estranged from her family for a long time due to her marriage to him, and that since his arrest, her and her son’s life had become “extremely difficult and harsh.”
“Since the jury’s verdict, Mr. Pahlawan’s singular focus in his telephone conversations is the well-being of his family,” his attorney said. “He doesn’t talk about himself or his destiny. He cries, worried about what will become of his wife and son.”
The court ruled that his high sentence was “appropriate given the nature and circumstances of the crime and the history and characteristics of the defendant.”
He was sentenced in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
