Iran has paid a secret network of more than 5,000 defence-related companies and proxies to have shipped at least $2 billion of military equipment, explosives and heavy trucks into the country from as early as January 2025, according to a Reuters investigation.
The network, whose aliases include ones starting with MOD, a reference to Iran’s Ministry of Defence, has allowed Tehran to keep its missile and drone programmes supplied despite international sanctions.
Another agency, MOD 346428, imported items valued at US $2.3 billion between January 2025 and June 2026, the report said. The deliveries ranged from rocket fuel ingredients, explosives and aircraft parts to industrial machinery and hundreds of trucks that could potentially be converted into mobile missile launchers.
The goods allegedly came in the goods through China, Russia, Germany and other countries via the Caspian Sea, road and air routes.
Certain agencies appeared to be associated with the IRGC, a list of Iranian elite foundations called bonyads.
The imports are “an industrial-scale effort to rebuild or expand Iran’s existing fleet” of drones and missiles, said Peter Salisbury, an Iran arms transfer expert.
Reuters said its research was based on Iranian bank data, company filings and thousands of shipping documents.
