A notorious Iranian drug trafficking network, along with one of Tehran’s intelligence officers, have been sanctioned for allegedly planning and carrying out attacks on the UK.
Britain’s Foreign Office has announced sanctions on the Zindashti Network, which is headed by Naji Sharifi Zindashti, who the US has described as a “narcotics trafficker” who “operates at the behest Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (Mois)”.
In total, the UK has issued 12 new sanctions against Iranians accused of planning attacks in Britain on behalf of Iran. The Foreign Office imposed travel bans and asset freezes on nine people for carrying out “hostile activity” in the UK and elsewhere.
Iran has been linked to a series of attacks on Jewish targets in the UK. A shadowy group calling itself Harakat Ashab Al Yamin Al Islamia, or Ashab Al Yamin, which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand, has claimed responsibility.
Its intelligence services have been linked with criminals in Europe, in particular Kurdish gangster Rawa Majid's Foxtrot network, which it uses to carry out attacks on enemies at a distance in an attempt to maintain deniability.
Three alleged members of the Zindashti criminal network have also been placed under sanctions by the EU, including Naji Sharifi Zindashti’s nephew, Ekrem Oztunc. The 41-year-old Turkish national has “played a pivotal role in relaying, through encrypted channels, the orders to kill during the network’s assassination attempts", says the EU.
Also sanctioned is Reza Hamidiravari, 62, an Iranian Ministry of Intelligence officer "who oversees Naji Zindashti’s Mois-directed operations, including the killing of dissidents and critics of the Iranian regime". He is wanted in the US by the FBI, which accuses him of "participation in a plot to murder two residents” in Maryland.
Nihat Asan, 44, who the EU describes as a close “Zindashti Network associate” who has “played a pivotal role in logistical planning for many of the network’s assassination attempts”, has also now been sanctioned by Britain.
Roger MacMillan, the former head of security at Iran International and an expert on Tehran’s use of proxies, said Mr Zindashti “is someone who's basically done a lot of heavy lifting and dirty work for the regime over the years – he's not a pleasant man”.
Mr MacMillan said the actions of the Zindashti Network are “a lot more coherent and professional” than the Ashab Al Yamin attacks, which he said were more amateurish. “These guys are a drug smuggling gang, so they don't operate in a way that is unprofessional,” he told The National.
Announcing the sanctions, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This package of sanctions directly targets organisations and individuals who threaten security on UK streets and stability in the Middle East.
“Criminal proxies backed by parts of the Iranian regime who threaten security in the UK and Europe will not be tolerated, nor will illicit finance networks. We are co-ordinating our actions across Europe.”
The network is believed to have carried out several assassinations, kidnappings and other operations – including in the US – “in an attempt to silence the Iranian regime's perceived critics”.
Among those kidnapped was Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German activist who was abducted while travelling abroad in 2020. Mr Sharmahd, who had US residency, was sentenced to death by an Iranian court in 2023 in a trial that the US condemned as a sham, and executed the following year.
Iran also relied on criminal networks in the assassination of Dutch-Ahwazi activist Ahmad Molla Nissi in The Hague in 2017, as well as the kidnapping of journalist Ruhollah Zam in Iraq in 2019. Mr Zam was executed in Iran in 2020.
The network also reportedly recruited Canadian members of the Hells Angels Outlaw Motorcycle Group in 2021 to assassinate people in the US who had fled Iran.
In 2017, the British-Iranian dissident Saeed Karimian, who owned Gem TV and used it to broadcast content critical of the Iranian regime, was shot and killed in Istanbul along with Kuwaiti businessman Muhammad Mer Almuntari.
Mr Zindashti was arrested in connection with Mr Karimian's death but was controversially released after just six months, causing a legal scandal in Turkey. Another judge ordered his rearrest, but by then he had left the country.
Among those also sanctioned by the UK are five members of the Zarringhalam family – Farhad, Fazlolah, Mansour, Nasser and Pouria – said to have helped finance efforts to “destabilise” the UK.
Mansour, Nasser and Fazlolah Zarringhalam were sanctioned by the US last year for their involvement in Iran’s “shadow banking” network.
The US Treasury said the trio had “collectively laundered billions of dollars” for Iran through a network of front companies. Berelian Exchange and GCM Exchange, companies linked to their network, were also sanctioned on Monday.
