Massachusetts man charged with supporting Iran in drone strike that killed 3 U.S. service members
BOSTON - Two men, including a dual Iranian American citizen who lives in Natick, Massachusetts, have been arrested on charges that they exported sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American troops early this year and injured dozens of other service members, the Justice Department said Monday.
The pair were arrested after FBI specialists who analyzed the drone traced the navigation system to an Iranian company operated by one of the defendants, who relied on technology funneled from the U.S. by his alleged co-conspirator, officials said.
"We often cite hypothetical risk when we talk about the dangers of American technology getting into dangerous hands," said U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts. "Unfortunately, in this situation, we are not speculating."
The defendants were identified as Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, who prosecutors say works at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, and Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, who was arrested Monday in Italy as the Justice Department seeks his extradition to Massachusetts.
FBI search in Natick
Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Boston, said Sadeghi is a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Natick, "who we believe abandoned this country that took him in to help strengthen the arsenal of weapons for one of the world's most infamous state sponsors of terrorism."
Sadeghi was arrested without incident on Monday and made his initial appearance in court. He was held pending a detention hearing scheduled for Dec. 27.
A home on Woodland Street in Natick was searched by the FBI on Monday afternoon in connection with the investigation.
Prosecutors allege that Abedininajafabadi, who also uses the surname Adedini and operates an Iranian company that manufactures navigation systems for drones, has connections to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. They allege that he conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws, including through a front company in Switzerland, and procure sensitive technology into Iran.
Both men are charged with export control violations, and Abedini separately faces charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran.
"These charges today underscore that the Department of Justice will not cease in its effort to seek justice for servicemembers who were killed and harmed overseas," Levy said.
Sadeghi's employer, Analog Devices, said it is cooperating with federal law enforcement.
"ADI takes its compliance obligations and role in national security very seriously," a spokesperson for Analog Devices said. "We have cooperated fully with federal law enforcement and will continue to do so throughout the proceedings. ADI is committed to preventing unauthorized access to and misuse of our products and technology."
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey was asked about the arrests on Tuesday.
"Obviously really alarming and terrible allegations. I'm really glad the federal authorities were able to quickly get on it and apprehend the individual and the other individual," Healey said.
Drone attack in Jordan
U.S. officials blamed the January attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.
Three Georgia soldiers - Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross - were killed in the Jan. 28 drone attack on a U.S. outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22.
In the attack, the one-way attack drone may have been mistaken for a U.S. drone that was expected to return back to the logistics base about the same time and was not shot down.
Instead, it crashed into living quarters, killing the three soldiers and injuring more than 40.
Tower 22 held about 350 U.S. military personnel at the time. It is strategically located between Jordan and Syria, only 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Iraqi border, and in the months just after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Israel's blistering response in Gaza, Iranian-backed militias intensified their attacks on U.S. military locations in the region.
Following the attack, the U.S. launched a huge counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militia and bolstered Tower 22's defenses.