TEHRAN -- Iran’s intelligence forces have identified and dismantled a cell responsible for financing the activities and supplying weapons to the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group, besides laundering the proceeds of the group’s criminal activities, the intelligence ministry said Monday.
Six members of the cell were captured in simultaneous operations across the country, while ten others have been subpoenaed, it sad. Several suspects remain at large as well.
The ministry said the cell used to employ intricate money laundering methods to transfer cash from abroad into Iran, and provided the MKO-affiliated teams with munitions and various equipment in order to carry out acts of terror.
The statement noted that the ringleader of the cell, identified as Ali Muhammad Dowlati, is a high-profile MKO member who has offices and companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Netherlands.
He operated in Albania, the UAE and the Netherlands, facilitated the terrorist group’s operations, and provided necessary cover-ups while financing and providing logistics for the terrorists.
Inside Iran, several offices, companies and operatives linked to the MKO would receive money and equipment from individuals based abroad, and were carrying out multi-layered money laundering with the aim of erasing any possible traces of affiliation to the terrorist group.
They even hired several thugs and vandals during recent riots in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, who fainted at a police station and was pronounced dead days later at a Tehran hospital on September 16.
The Iranian intelligence ministry stressed that investigation into the activities of the dismantled cell and its affiliates are still ongoing, and its foreign-based members will be pursued by the Interpol on charges of “sponsorship of terrorism” and “organized money laundering.”
The ministry also warned the countries hosting MKO terrorists, namely Albania, the Netherlands and the UAE, that their presence there would bear no fruit other than illegal and terrorist activities given the criminal records of the terrorists.