By Ahmad Rafat
The escalation of the conflict in the Middle East following Israel’s recent missile and drone strikes on Lebanon and the deaths of Hezbollah military leaders, coupled with the detonation of communication devices such as pagers and walkie-talkies among members of this paramilitary group, have heightened concerns regarding potential terrorist activities in Western countries.
In recent days, security, and intelligence agencies from European countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, and Italy have submitted reports to their respective governments warning of an elevated risk of terrorist activities linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran. These reports primarily emphasize the involvement of “Unit 840,” which serves as the foreign operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Qods Force (QF), which serves as the extraterritorial branch of the IRGC, created Unit 840 several years ago. The primary aim of this unit is to engage in terrorist activities outside of Iran, targeting Western countries and their allies.
Under the leadership of a mysterious IRGC commander known as Yazdan-Mir, Unit 840 has allegedly established ties with some of the most infamous drug-trafficking organizations internationally and employs their members to conduct assassinations in foreign territories.
Unit 840 of QF is composed of several subunits. This operational unit is geographically divided into three distinct regions: the Middle East and Africa (including Israel), the Caucasus and Asia, and Western Europe and America (covering Latin America). Within Unit 840, one subunit monitors and neutralizes regime opponents. Another subunit concentrates on forging connections with international criminal organizations.
Islamic Republic Is Allegedly Hiring Crime Gangs to Kill Opponents in Europe
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there have been instances of foreign agents targeting and assassinating opponents of the Islamic Republic. However, the identified links between Unit 840 and organized crime syndicates operating in Europe and Latin America have alarmed security and intelligence agencies.
QF’s Unit 840 was reportedly implicated in the attempted assassination of Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a prominent Spanish political figure, in Madrid in November 2023. Vidal-Quadras, who serves as a representative for Vox, a far-right political party in Spain, was shot in the face by an assailant riding a motorcycle. He sustained a fractured jaw that required surgery.
As reported by Spain’s National Intelligence Center, Mehrez Ayari, a French-Tunisian dual national, is suspected of having planned the failed assassination attempt on Vidal-Quadras. Earlier this year, Dutch law enforcement arrested Ayari at the request of judicial authorities from Madrid.
The police were pursuing Ayari on murder allegations, supported by international arrest warrants from both France and Spain. He is believed to be a professional hitman working for various criminal organizations. Ayari’s connections, reportedly with French criminal groups, highlight the cooperation between Unit 840 and mafia networks.
In October 2022, the Islamic Republic designated several Western politicians as “supporters of terrorism.” These individuals are said to back the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, commonly known as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).
The report from Spain’s National Intelligence Center noted that the involvement of organized crime makes it more difficult to trace the Islamic Republic’s role in terrorist activities and complicates the efforts to link these assassinations with the IRGC directly.
A member of a human trafficking organization was allegedly hired in the UK to orchestrate the assassination of Sima Sabet and Fardad Farahzad, two well-known journalists associated with the 24-hour news outlet Iran International TV. However, this individual, a citizen of an Eastern European country, was also working with British law enforcement.
The individual helped law enforcement by disclosing the assassination conspiracy. As a result, the Metropolitan Police of London apprehended an Austrian criminal of Chechen origin named Magomed-Husekjn Dovtaev, who was subsequently tried and sentenced to three years and six months in prison.
The assailants who attacked journalist Pouria Zeraati, also affiliated with the same television channel, using a knife on March 30 of this year have been identified as criminals from Albania.
Swedish Security Service Says Iran Uses Criminal Networks in Sweden
The London Metropolitan Police have reportedly identified and disrupted 16 terrorist plots linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran since 2022. As a result, the British government has imposed sanctions on four high-ranking commanders from the IRGC-QF’s Unit 840: Mohammad Reza Ansari, Ali Esfanjani, Mohammad Abdolrazegh Kanaani, and Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh.
In April, a married couple of Algerian heritage from France, named Abdelkarim S. and Sabrina B., were arrested in Paris. Both have a recorded history of involvement with a drug trafficking group in France. They were detained on charges of conspiring to murder Jewish individuals and conduct bombings at sites linked to Israel in Germany and France.
The Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), France’s agency responsible for foreign intelligence, has announced the apprehension of individuals, emphasizing their previous involvement with drug traffickers and connections to the Islamic Republic. The DGSE stated that “The Islamic Republic is currently orchestrating targeted assassinations aimed at retaliating against Israel and heightening insecurity among its opponents.”
The Dutch government has implicated a notorious criminal group led by Ridouan Taghi, a notorious Moroccan-Dutch figure in organized crime, for orchestrating the assassinations of two adversaries of the Islamic Republic: Mohammad Reza Kolahi-Samadi and Ahmad Mola Nissi.
Recently, a court in the Netherlands imposed a life sentence on Taghi.
Ali Motamed, whose real name was Mohammad Reza Kolahi-Samadi, had been tried and sentenced to death in absentia by a Revolutionary Court in Iran for his purported involvement in detonating a bomb at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic party in 1981. The bombing killed 73 people, including Mohammad Beheshti, who served as the head of Iran’s Supreme Court and was the secretary general of the Islamic Republic Party.
In 2015, Kolahi Samadi was murdered in Almere, Netherlands, allegedly by three members of a gang led by Taghi, referred to as the “Angels of Death.” This same gang is said to have assassinated Ahmad Mola Nissi, the 52-year-old founder of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), in The Hague in 2017.
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QF’s Unit 840 has also been reportedly collaborating closely with drug trafficking organizations in Turkey for several years.
Naji Sharifi Zindashti, an Iranian national with residences in both Iran and Turkey, is on the FBI’s “most wanted list” for “conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.” U.S. authorities accuse him of orchestrating international assassination and drug smuggling operations.
U.S. officials allege that Sharifi Zindashti recruited a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, along with an accomplice, to assassinate a former Iranian intelligence officer who had moved to the U.S. and was living in Maryland. They claim that Ramin Yektaparast, an Iranian-German drug trafficker who has since fled to Iran, played a role in aiding Sharifi Zindashti in this plot.
Sharifi Zindashti is also accused by Turkey of assassinating Saeed Karimian, the founder and owner of Dubai-based GEM TV, in Istanbul on April 29, 2017.
Sharifi Zindashti is said to have also played a role in the abduction of Habib Farajollah Chaab, also known as Habib Osayved, who was an Iranian Arab political activist holding Swedish citizenship and served as the founder and leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz.
In October 2020, Chaab was kidnapped while he was in Turkey and subsequently smuggled into Iran. He was executed by hanging in Iran on May 6, 2023.
On June 19, 2020, Gholamreza Mansouri, a fugitive judge notorious for delivering harsh sentences to journalists in Iran, was discovered dead under questionable circumstances in Bucharest. Although Romanian authorities classified his death as a suicide, local media outlets suggest he may not have accidentally fallen down the stairs of his hotel but could have been pushed by one or more individuals.
In connection to Mansouri’s questionable death, the name of a prominent Iranian smuggler, Hossein Karimi Rigabadi, has emerged. Rigabadi has lived in Romania for the past 15 years and faces allegations of drug trafficking across multiple Asian and Eastern European countries. He previously served five years in a U.S. prison and is the cousin of Sharifi Zindashti.
Israel is reported to have assassinated several prominent figures linked to Unit 840, or these individuals have died under suspicious circumstances.
On May 22, 2022, Hossein Sayad Khodaei, a member of Unit 840, was shot dead in Tehran while leaving his home. There are claims that Israel orchestrated his assassination. Sayad Khodaei is thought to have been involved in the murders of Jewish and Israeli citizens. He allegedly ordered the assassination of the Israeli consul in Istanbul, although this operation was never executed.
Another officer from Unit 840, Ali Ismaeilzadeh, died under questionable circumstances when he allegedly fell from the balcony of his residence in Karaj just six days after the assassination of Sayad Khodaei. His death was officially classified as a suicide; however, there are allegations suggesting that he had ties to Khodaei’s assassination and might have worked with Israel, which has led to speculation that he may have been pushed from the balcony.
