A Pakistani national, Muhammad Pahlawan, received a 40-year federal prison sentence on Oct. 16 after a jury found him guilty of participating in a scheme to move Iranian-made conventional weaponry across international waters. The case centers on a January 2024 interdiction at sea, the seizure of missile and warhead components, and evidence tying Pahlawan to a smuggling network that worked with individuals linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two U.S. servicemen died during the boarding, and prosecutors presented testimony and documents connecting multiple voyages and payments that moved material from Iran toward Houthi forces in Yemen. Federal law enforcement officials and national security prosecutors handled the case through trial and sentencing in the Eastern District of Virginia.
On June 5, 2025, a federal jury convicted Muhammad Pahlawan of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists, providing material support and resources to Iran’s weapons of mass destruction program, providing material support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ weapons of mass destruction program, conspiring to and indeed transporting explosive devices to the Houthis knowing those explosives would be used to cause harm and threatening his crew. The convictions encompassed both conspiracy and direct support counts tied to the movement of weapon components and explosive devices. The court found the offenses serious enough to justify a lengthy term, reflecting the national security implications and the violent outcome of the interdiction. Sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Judge David J. Novak.
The night of Jan. 11, 2024, is central to the prosecution’s case. U.S. Central Command Navy forces operating from the USS LEWIS B. PULLER, including Navy SEALs and members of the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team East, boarded an unflagged dhow in the Arabian Sea off Somalia. The boarding team discovered 14 mariners aboard, among them Muhammad Pahlawan, and conducted a search that turned up Iranian-made advanced conventional weaponry. Seized items included ballistic missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components, and a warhead.
The types of weapons found matched the armaments Houthi forces had used in attacks on merchant and military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the period following the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. Prosecutors tied those same kinds of components to the charged conspiracy that targeted merchant shipping and military vessels. During the interdiction, evidence showed Pahlawan lied to the boarding team, ordered crew members to lie, and later threatened both crewmembers and their families to prevent cooperation. The boarding resulted in a firefight in which two Navy SEALs, Christopher Chambers and Nathan Gage Ingram, lost their lives.
The broader smuggling operation spanned months, beginning around August 2023 and continuing into January 2024. According to the case, Pahlawan worked with two Iranian brothers, Shahab Mir’kazei and Yunus Mir’kazei, who prosecutors say were affiliated with the IRGC. Those brothers allegedly coordinated payments, provided precise coordinates for ship-to-ship transfers, and arranged logistics that enabled midnight rendezvous and cargo handoffs off the Somali coast. Pahlawan’s role involved piloting and preparing the dhow, moving cargo from Iran to a transfer point, and completing multiple voyages as part of the network.
Testimony and records introduced at trial documented payments to Pahlawan and communications that showed coordination with the Mir’kazei brothers. Witnesses described how Pahlawan and other crew members prepared the vessel and carried out transfers intended to disguise the origin and destination of the material. The government presented physical evidence recovered during the boarding and forensic details linking components to Iranian production sources. Investigators built a chain tying the interdicted cargo and the transfer operations back to the larger scheme prosecutors described.
High-level officials announced the outcome after sentencing, including Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg, U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director Donald M. Holstead of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, and Assistant Director in Charge Darren B. Cox of the FBI Washington Field Office. The prosecution team included former Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy A. Edwards and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin R. Tisdale for the Eastern District of Virginia, along with Trial Attorney Joseph N. Kaster of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Former Eastern District of Virginia prosecutor Danya Atiyeh also supported the case during litigation and trial preparation.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
