Woodland Hills woman nabbed at LAX on Iranian arms trafficking charge
Apr 19, 2026, 12:43 PM | Updated: 2:46 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal prosecutors said a 44-year-old Los Angeles woman was arrested Saturday night at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of helping Iran traffic weapons to Sudan, which is in its fourth year of a bloody civil war.
Shamim Mafi will face charges that she brokered the sale of “drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition” between Iran and the Sudanese Armed Forces, First U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Sunday on social media.
A phone number for Mafi could not be located and it wasn’t known Sunday if she has an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
Essayli posted a photo of someone in an FBI jacket escorting a woman into the back of a sedan outside a terminal at LAX.
Mafi is an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016, Essayli said.
She is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.
The Sudanese civil war has created a humanitarian crisis in the North African country where food supplies are dwindling and millions of people have fled their homes.
