Iranian extradited to US to face 2014 smuggling indictment over export of military sonar gear

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SEATTLE (AP) — An Iranian citizen who was indicted more than a decade ago on charges that he shipped military sonar equipment from the U.S. to Iran in violation of American trade sanctions has been extradited to Seattle, the Justice Department said Monday.

Reza Dindar, 44, was indicted in 2014 on charges that include conspiracy, smuggling and money laundering. He was arrested last July in Panama at the request of U.S. authorities and flown to Seattle last Thursday, the DOJ said. It's unclear where Dindar had been in the intervening years or why he had not been arrested sooner.

Dindar made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in the afternoon, and his arraignment was set for May 1. One of his attorneys, Farhad Alavi, told The Associated Press on Monday that he had no comment.

According to the indictment, which was unsealed Friday, Dindar ran a business called New Port Sourcing Solutions in Xi’an, China. In 2011 and 2012, he and others “used deception to purchase parts for three military sonar systems from a business in the Western District of Washington” by concealing that the items were ultimately destined for Iran and by claiming that no license was needed to export them, prosecutors said.

The company bought the sonar systems for $97,600, had them shipped to China and then surreptitiously sent them to Iran, according to the indictment. The conduct violated sanctions on Iran first imposed in 1995 and renewed in 2001, it said.

The U.S. and Israel launched a war on Iran Feb. 28 during talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. Since then at least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

In an unrelated case, federal prosecutors said a 44-year-old Los Angeles woman was arrested Saturday night at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of helping Iran traffic weapons to Sudan, which is in its fourth year of a bloody civil war.