The Islamic Republic has in recent years been enlisting the help of criminal organizations to carry out operations against its critics in Europe and the United States, according to a Thursday investigation by The Washington Post.
The newspaper alleged that the regime in Tehran’s overseas campaign is supported by many nefarious factions, including the Hells Angels motorcycle club, the Russian Thieves of Law organized crime association, the leader of an Iranian international drug trafficking syndicate, and various smaller gangs in a half dozen nations.
The Post reported that these confederates have been involved in efforts to strike at individuals and groups deemed hostile to the theocracy: an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps defector in Maryland, an exiled journalist in New York City, the founder of a Persian language television station in Turkey, gay and lesbian advocates in Germany, a women’s rights activist in Switzerland, and at least five employees of the London-based dissident news network, Iran International.
The Islamic Republic was also accused of contracting third parties to orchestrate the assassinations of political figures in the U.S., namely former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, and possibly former President Donald Trump.
The report also claimed Tehran is using these illicit networks to target Israeli and Jewish institutions in France and Germany, asserting that regime mercenaries are responsible for four antisemitic arson attacks that have occurred this year in the two countries.
U.S. government officials told The Post that the regime has become reliant on the repressive outsourcing because of increased scrutiny and surveillance placed on its clandestine activities by Western spy agencies.
The allegations were denied by a spokesperson at Tehran’s mission to the United Nations in New York, who referred to the charges as “concoctions of the Zionist regime, the Albania-based Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult, and certain Western intelligence services.”
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