A weapons smuggler who used a fishing boat to ship ballistic missile parts from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen has been sentenced to 40 years in a U.S. prison.
Pakistani national Muhammad Pahlawan was detained during a U.S. military operation in the Arabian Sea in January 2024 - during which two U.S. Navy Seals drowned.
Pahlawan's crew testified they had been duped into taking part, having believed they were working as fishermen.
The Houthis had launched sustained missile and drone attacks on Israel at the time, and targeted international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they were acting in support of Gazans. Iran has consistently denied arming the Houthis.
The crew's detailed testimonies to a court in the U.S. state of Virginia provide a rare look inside a smuggling operation that helped power the attacks.
The components found on Pahlawan's boat were 'some of the most sophisticated weapon systems that Iran proliferates to other terrorist groups', U.S. federal prosecutors said after his trial.
The 49-year-old was sentenced on Thursday, having been previously convicted on five counts - including terrorism offenses and transporting weapons of mass destruction.
Court documents show the sentences for two of the five counts will run concurrently for 240 months, or 20 years. The other three counts, another 20 years, will run consecutive to that - making a total of 480 months, or 40 years.
The eight crew members who testified in court said they had no idea what was inside the large packages on board the boat, named the Yunus.
One crew member said that when he questioned Pahlawan about it, he was told to mind his own business.
Pahlawan, however, knew just how dangerous the cargo was.
He referred to himself as a 'walking dead person' in text message exchanges with his wife, sent in the days before the January 2024 voyage which would get him arrested.
'Just pray that [we] come back safely,' said the message, used as evidence in court.
'Why do you talk like this, 'may or may not come back',' she asked him.
Pahlawan told her: 'Such is the nature of the job, my dear, such is the nature of the job.'
His final words to her before sailing were: 'Keep me in your prayers. May God take me there safely and bring me back safely, alright. Pray.'
For this journey, Pahlawan was paid 1,400 million rials (£25,200; $33,274) - a substantial fee prosecutors at his trial described as 'danger money'.
The trip was 'part of a larger operation' funded and coordinated by two Iranian brothers, Yunus and Shahab Mir'kazei, said the then-U.S. Department of Defense (now known as the Department of War) in a statement in June.
The Mir'kazei brothers are allegedly affiliated, it added, with Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) - the most powerful armed force in Iran. The IRGC is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S.
Both Shahab and Yunus Mir'kazei have been charged by the American authorities, but are still at large and believed to be in Iran.
Pahlawan made two successful smuggling voyages before he was caught - one in October 2023, and a second two months later.
The dozen men he recruited to join him were all from Pakistan and had travelled across the border into Iran looking for work.
The packages contained Iranian-made ballistic missile parts, anti-ship cruise missile components and a warhead.
The American military said the packages found on board the Yunus were the first Iranian-supplied weapons to be seized by U.S. forces since the Houthis had started attacking vessels in the Red Sea a few months earlier.
