Two charged with US technology used in deadly drone attack on Jordanian soldiers | Drone Strikes News

An Iranian-American and an Iranian-Swiss have been arrested on suspicion of sending sensitive US technology to Iran for use in drone attacks.

An Iranian-American citizen and an Iranian-Swiss have been arrested and charged by United States authorities for allegedly sending sensitive technology to Iran that was used in deadly drone attacks on American forces based in Jordan.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, is suspected of carrying out a drone attack that killed three US soldiers and wounded 47 others on a US military base in Jordan, near the Syrian border, in January.

Prosecutors in Boston on Monday charged Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, 38, aka Mohammad Abedini, the founder of an Iran-based company, and Mahdi Sadeghi, 42, an employee of Massachusetts-based Analog Devices, with conspiring to violate US export laws.

Abedini, a dual citizen of Switzerland and Iran, was arrested in Milan, Italy, at the request of the US government, which will seek his extradition. Sadeghi, an Iranian-born American citizen who lives in Natick, Massachusetts, was also arrested.

“Today, in cooperation with our partners here and abroad, we charged and arrested two men who conspired to evade U.S. sanctions and provide the Iranian government with the type of drone navigation technology used in that attack,” said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. statement.

Joshua Levy, the chief prosecutor in Massachusetts, said the FBI had traced sophisticated tracking devices used by the spy to Abedini’s Iranian company, SDRA, which developed the surveillance system.

Abedini, Levy said, used a Swiss company as a front to buy American technology from Sadeghi’s employer, including accelerometers and gyroscopes shipped to Iran.

On several occasions since 2016, Sadeghi helped Abedini buy controlled electronic devices outside the US, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

During a brief court hearing, Sadeghi was ordered held pending trial after the prosecutor called him a flight risk. His court-appointed attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

An attorney for Abedini has not been named.

Court documents do not identify Sadeghi’s employer by name, but Analog Devices confirmed in a statement that he works for the company.

Analog Devices said it is cooperating with law enforcement and is “committed to preventing unauthorized access and misuse of our products and technology”.

The US Department of Justice said the prosecution of the two men was coordinated by the US government’s Disruptive Technology Strike Force, an interagency force focused on “illegal actors” and supply chain protection to prevent sensitive technology from being acquired by a “hostile country”.