Fox News delivers an astonishing report about the extent of Iran’s smuggling network:
Nearly half of all shipping docks in Iran are operated by the regime’s military, and it is using shell companies to smuggle weapons and other illicit goods, according to a new report.
A total of 90 docks have been taken over by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is using them to circumvent sanctions and fund terrorist activities in the Middle East and beyond, according to the anti-regime People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
“Based on the direct order of the current supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, no authority is allowed to oversee the activities of the IRGC at border areas, be it on the ground, sea or air, and it can import anything in any quantity without paying any customs fee,” PMOI officials said in a statement provided to Fox News. “The IRGC uses these docks for its unlawful activities.”
Besides weapons, the IRGC is smuggling “oil, gas, chemical products, cigarettes, narcotics, alcohol, mobile phones, pharmaceuticals, hygiene material and energy drugs and supplements,” to the tune of about $12 billion in annual net income.
As for the weapons, it is not surprising to learn many of them are smuggled into Yemen via Oman. The PMOI opposition group named Admiral Group, Hafez Daya, and Valfajr as front companies and specified Soltan Qaboos, Sohar, and Salalah as their favorite ports of call in Oman.
Fox News pairs this report with one from the European Iraqi Freedom Association that charges the IRGC with the “hidden occupation” of Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon – plus meddling in the affairs of at least eight other countries, including key U.S. allies Egypt and Jordan – as information the Trump administration might wish to consider before deciding whether to label the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.
Iran has recently been caught smuggling weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon with commercial airliner flights, smuggling anti-tank missiles through Ukraine, and shipping sophisticated arms to the Houthis in Yemen.
Ironically, the Iranian government blames smuggling as one of the major causes of their struggling economy.
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