ICE nabs Iranians in US affiliated with Hezbollah, IRGC

Federal agents detain several Iranian nationals living in the US with links to terror groups, including a man affiliated with Hezbollah.

By World Israel News Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested 11 Iranians as part of a recent effort to deport immigrants with criminal histories from the U.S., detaining several nationals from the Islamic Republic with clear ties to terror.

The arrests came on the heels of threats by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he may activate Iranian “sleeper cells” in the U.S. to carry out terror attacks on American soil, as revenge for the bombing of its key nuclear sites.

One of the men detained by ICE was identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Mehran Makari Saheli, 56, a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is designated as a terror group by the US.

Saheli admitted that he had ties with the Hezbollah terror group, the Department of Homeland Security said.

Saheli is a convicted felon who served time in prison in Minnesota for illegal weapons possession.

Another Iranian national, Yousef Mehridehno, was arrested after federal authorities discovered he had lied on his visa application.

He was added to the U.S. terror watchlist in February and was taken into custody by federal agents in Mississippi on Sunday.

Ribvar Karimi, an Iranian immigrant who served as a sniper in the Islamic Republic’s army from 2018 to 2021, was arrested at his home in Alabama over the weekend.

Karimi entered the country legally, but was detained for not adjusting his immigration status after marrying an American citizen, which meant that he violated the terms of his visa.

The Department of Homeland Security “has identified and arrested known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs or otherwise,” the authority wrote on X.

“We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out — and we are. We don’t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump’s mandate to secure the homeland.”