Military Cyber-Defense Materials Discovered Aboard Grounded Aircraft

In an instance indicative of troubling political undercurrents in South America, Argentine authorities have grounded a Venezuelan Boeing 747-300 that the U.S. Justice Department alleges was previously linked to a U.S.-sanctioned Iranian airline with ties to terrorist organizations.

The Justice Department has petitioned the Argentine government to hand the aircraft over to the U.S.

The aircraft, registration YV3531, landed at Buenos Aires’s Ezeiza International Airport on 08 June 2022 carrying a crew of 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians. The plane was grounded and searched by Argentine authorities who discovered a cargo of materials used for military cyber-defense operations. Argentina's government has not publicly confirmed the incident, but an Interior Ministry document ascribes the grounding and search to suspicion of the stated reason for the aircraft’s entering the country.

The cargo raised fears that the U.S.-made plane—which the Justice Department maintains was transferred in 2021 from Iran’s Mahan Air to Venezuela's state-owned Emtrasur Air in violation of U.S. export control laws—is likely a cover for Iranian intelligence operations in South America. Mahan Air has been under U.S. sanctions since 2011 for its support for Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

The U.S. Justice Department’s desire to take possession of the aircraft derives of an Argentine federal judge’s decision to allow 12 of the plane's 19 crewmembers to leave the country. Among the four Iranians and three Venezuelans ordered to remain in Argentina was the plane’s pilot, Gholamreza Ghasemi, a former commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The DOJ’s seizure request speaks to growing fears that Iran may be gaining a more substantial foothold in Latin America, a troubling development as the Biden administration—for reasons passing understanding—attempts to invigorate Iran’s nuclear aspirations by negotiating with Tehran to rekindle the patently dangerous, demonstrably unenforceable, Obama-era Iran nuclear deal.

Both Iran and Argentina have recently applied for membership in the BRICS Group, an international organization including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that casts itself as an alternative to Western alliances. Furthermore, the 747’s arrival in Argentina follows Iranian Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaee’s attendance of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s inaugural ceremony. Rezaee is a former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and is wanted in Argentina for allegedly masterminding the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division put forth in a press release: "The Department of Justice will not tolerate transactions that violate our sanctions and export laws. Working with our partners across the globe, we will give no quarter to governments and state-sponsored entities looking to evade our sanctions and export control regimes in service of their malign activities."

FBI Acting Assistant Director of Counterterrorism Kevin Vorndran adds: "This [requested] seizure demonstrates the FBI’s persistence in using all of our tools to hold the Iranian Government and affiliated individuals and companies accountable when they violate U.S. laws. The FBI, along with our international partners, will continue to seek out those individuals who contribute to the advancement of Iran’s malign activities and ensure they are brought to justice, regardless of where, or how, they attempt to hide."

FMI: www.justice.gov