The US Treasury Department has announced that it has discovered an international network supplying Iranian drones from China through front companies. These drones are sold to maintain separatist and rebel movements in several countries and are also sent to wage war in Ukraine. The United States will apply sanctions.
“Iran is directly implicated in Ukrainian civilian casualties resulting from Russia’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.
“The United States will continue to target Iranian global supply networks that supply Russia with deadly drones to use in its illegal war in Ukraine,” he added.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated a network of five Chinese companies including front companies and one individual involved in the resale of Iranian drones.
These include Hangzhou Fuyang Koto Machinery Co., Ltd (Koto Machinery), a China-based company, used its trade infrastructure to facilitate the sale and shipment of aerospace components, Raven International Trade Limited (Raven) , to facilitate multi-million dollar transactions for aerospace components.
“To mask its activity, Koto Machinery used Hong Kong-based shell company Raven International Trade Limited (Raven) to facilitate multimillion-dollar transactions for aerospace components,” a Department statement said. of the US Treasury.
Thus, the Chinese company Guilin Alpha Rubber & Plastics Technology Co., Ltd (Guilin Alpha) facilitated the sale and shipment of thousands of aerospace components worth more than one million dollars to Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) which participated in the production of the Shahed-136 drone model, a company designated by Washington as owned or controlled by the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).
The US Treasury Department has pinned the Chinese company S&C Trade PTY Co., Ltd (S&C Trade), and its China-based employee, a man named Yun Xia Yuan, as well as the Chinese company Shenzhen Caspro Technology Co., Ltd (Caspro) who “facilitated the sale and shipment of thousands of aerospace components worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft and drone applications to HESA in Iran,” said the same source.
Sanctions will be applied for these 5 Chinese companies by the American authorities who have announced the freezing of all the property and interests of individuals and entities who are in the United States. All entities owned, directly or indirectly, at 50% or more by one or more identified and blocked persons are also blocked.
Even people who engage in certain transactions with the designated persons or entities may face penalties, warns the same source.