A federal jury convicted Muhammad Pahlawan, 49, on Thursday for smuggling Iranian weapons to the Houthi terrorists in Yemen and for threatening “multiple” witnesses, the U.S. Justice Department stated.
U.S. forces, including Navy SEALs, captured the Pakistani national when they boarded an unflagged, small ship that he was captaining, with 13 other people aboard, off the coast of Somalia on Jan. 11, 2024.
When the U.S. forces searched the boat, they found and “seized Iranian-made advanced conventional weaponry, including ballistic missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components and a warhead,” per the Justice Department. (Two Navy SEALs died in the operation.)
The cache is “consistent with the weaponry used by the Houthi rebel forces during the time of the charged conspiracy against merchant ships and U.S. military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel,” the department said.
Pahlawan lied to the U.S. forces and told the crew to lie, threatening their lives and their families.
Per court documents, Pahlawan collaborated from August 2023 until January 2024 with the Iranian brothers Shahab Mir’kazei and Yunus Mir’kazei, who are tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Iran, a U.S.-designated terror organization. He and the brothers smuggled Iranian cargo to the Houthis in Yemen.
Many of the five charges, of which he was convicted, carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison, the Justice Department stated.
