China, Iran, and Russia Trying to Illegally Obtain American Technology, DHS Official Says

The chief of a top unit at the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated Wednesday that "sensitive" materials were showing up overseas in weapons used by the Islamic Republic of Iran, China, and Russia as part of a broader effort to steal U.S. technology.

Speaking to ABC News, Jim Mancuso, the assistant director of the Global Trade Division at Homeland Security Investigations, stated that Iran’s drones recovered on the battlefield in Ukraine and the Middle East have "sensitive U.S. communications systems, and they have sensitive microelectronics." Mancuso added that Iran, China, and Russia were trying to "illegally acquire" American technology.

He went on to add that anti-American forces are using an "extensive network" to obtain American technology out of the country, in violation of international export laws.

Through specialized "procurement networks," these regimes are repacking goods and transferring them through Beijing to get to places like Tehran, according to the DHS official. Some of the technology, according to Mancuso, is being exported and found in ordinary household items such as radios and microchips.

"They're going to go to China, and then from China, they're going to be loaded on an Iranian aircraft, and they're going to be flown to Iran," Mancuso told ABC News. The official noted that the DHS is looking at Russian networks operating in this country and that the agency knows that they are "repackaging sensitive U.S. equipment and is going onward to further the Russian war effort [in Ukraine]."

Mancuso said U.S. officials were targeting the "procurement networks," and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) begin when U.S. technology and materials are discovered where they should not be. "We're always trying to stay one step ahead," he told ABC News.

With conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Russia, Iran, and China have strengthened their economic and military partnership, providing each other with avenues to avoid international sanctions from the U.S. and its allies.

In Congress, lawmakers have called for the U.S. to pass legislation to increase defense spending to match the growing partnership and provide military resources to allies in the Middle East, Indo-Pacific, and Eastern and Western Europe to defend against such threats.