los angeles — A 44-year-old Los Angeles woman was arrested Saturday night at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of assisting with traffic in Iran, federal prosecutors said. Weapons to SudanShe is in her fourth year of bloodshed civil war.
Shamim Mafi will face charges for brokering the sale of “drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition” between Iran and the Sudanese Armed Forces, top U.S. Attorney Bill Isely said Sunday on social media.
Mafi’s phone number was not identified and it was not known Sunday whether she had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf.
Al-Asili posted a photo of a person wearing an FBI jacket escorting a woman to the back of a sedan outside the arrivals hall at Los Angeles International Airport.
Al-Asili said that Mafi is an Iranian citizen who became a legal permanent resident of the United States in 2016.
A criminal complaint dated March 12 alleges that Mafi and an unnamed conspirator ran a company in Amman called “Atlas International Business” through which weapons and ammunition were smuggled. The company received more than $7 million in payments in 2025.
Separately, Mafi and a co-conspirator brokered the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese Ministry of Defense, according to court documents.
“In connection with the transaction, Mavi submitted a letter of intent to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to purchase bomb fuses for Sudan,” the complaint said.
Maffei is scheduled to appear in US District Court in Los Angeles on Monday. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.
Sudanese civil war It has created a humanitarian crisis in the North African country as food supplies have dwindled and millions of people have fled their homes.