The US is seeking to keep more than one million rounds of ammunition the US Navy seized in December as it was in transit from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to militants in Yemen, the Justice Department said yesterday.
“The US disrupted a major operation by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to smuggle weapons of war into the hands of a militant group in Yemen,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
“The Justice Department is now seeking the forfeiture of those weapons, including over 1m rounds of ammunition and thousands of proximity fuses for rocket-propelled grenades.”
US naval forces on December 1 intercepted a fishing trawler smuggling more than 50 tonnes of ammunition rounds, fuses and propellants for rockets in the Gulf of Oman along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen, the Navy said.
They found more than 1m rounds of 7.62mm ammunition; 25,000 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition; nearly 7,000 proximity fuses for rockets; and over 2,100kg of propellant used to launch rocket propelled grenades, it said.
The forfeiture action is part of a larger government investigation into an Iranian weapons-smuggling network that supports military action by the Houthi movement in Yemen and the Iranian regime’s campaign of terrorist activities throughout the region, the Justice Department said.
The forfeiture complaint alleges a sophisticated scheme by the IRGC to clandestinely ship weapons to entities that pose grave threats to US national security.
Previous media reports have suggested the US is looking to send the weapons to Ukraine.
In January, US and French forces intercepted a vessel with thousands of assault rifles, anti-tank missiles, and 500,000 rounds of ammunition.
US forces have stepped up their efforts to monitor the waters in the region alongside its Gulf and Arab allies.
In December and January, the US Central Command said they carried out four “significant illicit cargo interdictions,” preventing over 5,000 weapons and 1.6m rounds of ammunition from reaching Yemen.
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