https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/01/719293/Iran-MKO-money-laundering-in-UK-terrorism-support
The British government this week imposed sanctions on Iranian officials on the false claim that they were using drug cartels to carry out terrorist activities.
Iran summoned the British ambassador to Tehran to protest against the “baseless accusations” and “illegal” sanctions by London and informed him of the Islamic Republic’s “strong” indignation.
“This is a bitter historical irony that a country that is the founder and supporter of organized terrorist groups, drug trafficking, and criminal gangs wants to make accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its loyal and honest forces, who are at the forefront of fighting organised crimes,” the director general of Western Europe at the Iranian foreign ministry, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, told British Ambassador Simon Shercliff.
The accusation against Iran flies in the face of the UK’s dim record on fighting drug gangs, while the country also supports terrorism and allows its soil to be used as a safe haven for terrorist groups.
Press TV has lately become privy to information provided by a security source which shows the British government has not only allowed the anti-Iran Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) to freely operate with a special privilege in the country, but has also closed its eyes to the terrorist cult’s engagement in drug trafficking.
The information shows one of the three main TV offices of the terrorist group known as Simay-e Azadi is in the UK, disseminating the terrorist activities of the group and transmitting encrypted messages to its members.
In addition, the UK government has removed the network from the oversight of Britain's communications regulator Ofcom in order to allow the channel to operate without any hindrance.
As a result, the television is broadcasting violent content and terrorist acts 24/7 without being caught for falling foul of Ofcom’s Code of Practice.
The hypocrisy, however, does not stop there. The British government has also provided the terrorist cult with the conditions to meet its financial needs through drug trafficking, according to the new information.
The level of coordination and support is such that after one of the MKO’s drug networks in the UK was dismantled and its members were arrested, Britain’s MI6 intelligence service did not allow the news to be published in the media. The agency also provided for a show trial which allowed the MKO to keep channels for illegal financing of the cult’s terrorist activities open.
According to the information, the UK is home to the largest network of money laundering and financing of MKO terrorists in the world, overseen by a man identified as Sivash Pisheh Varz.
Siavash and his brothers, Aref and Dariush, are among the long-standing members of the terrorist group.
Siavash himself is one of the most prominent figures in many companies and businesses linked to the MKO, who was arrested in London in 2009 for money laundering and trafficking over 9 million pounds in cash. His name is more often than not proof of MKO colluding.
He is a member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization who has attended many MKO gatherings in Europe, acted as a tool of propaganda for the terrorist group and facilitated several lobbying efforts in Europe.
In 2012, the British National Anti-Crime Foundation arrested a group of five individuals in relation to money laundering. The group which was taken into custody identified two money transfer centers in north Finchley.
The arrest operation began in September 2011 when Elias Bani al-Ebad, 59, Mahmoud Saadat, 44, and Mohammad Karijani, 40, met each other at IKEA Wembley Parking. Little did they know that several officers of the National Anti-Crime Foundation were watching them.
It was established that Karijani and Saadat were in contract with Siavash Pisheh Varz via telephone through the whole operation.
The following day, Bani al-Ebad and Karijani arrived at the same location and moved another cargo. On the same day, the two men were arrested and officers seized 150,000 pounds. An additional 57,000 pounds was discovered at one of the residences.
At Karijani’s address in Golders Green, police arrested Karijani’s wife, Samuel Jalali, 31, and Saadat, as they were destroying bank documents and other evidence. Among the documents, 43,350 pounds in cash was found. Pisheh Varz and Jalali were arrested in July 2012 and another 50,000 pounds was found in Pisheh Varz’s address.
Moreover, a notebook listing several transactions worth 9.5 million pounds was recovered at Pisheh Varz’s house.
The National Anti-Crime Foundation, after investigating the two money transfer centers, found that more than two million pounds had been transferred to the two centers in nine months.
In a separate case, Pisheh Varz is accused of overseeing the shipment of 500 kilograms of heroin to Ukraine by three individuals identified as Mohammad Forough, Ahmad Shah and Homayoun Mehrpour – all members of the terrorist cult’s drug trafficking network.
Pisheh Varz has a currency exchange office in the UK called "Transfer", which provides the financial needs of the MKO terrorist group.
He uses the office as a front for two important missions: money laundering for the terrorist cult and providing financial needs and transferring money to terrorist networks inside Iran to buy equipment for their terrorist operations.
