Flashback: Iran’s Soleimani Hired Mexican Cartel Associate to Assassinate Saudi Ambassador on U.S. Soil

Breitbart ^ | 1/3/2020 | Joshua Caplan

[bitt]

In May 2011, discussions began secretly in Mexico between a known Los Zetas associate and Quds Force operative Manssor Arbabsiar. The discussion would lead to planning a C-4 detonation at a Washington, D.C. restaurant frequented by Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. The Quds Force operative did not know that he was being recorded in a DEA operation.

Over the course of a few months, several clandestine meetings in Mexico planned strikes against the Israeli Embassy in Washington, plus and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina. New opium trafficking lanes between the Middle East and Mexico were also charted.

In July 2011, Arbabsiar returned to Mexico to continue meeting with the DEA informant. He explained that his bosses in Iran had plans for more violence, in addition to the Saudi ambassador’s murder. On July 14, the informant told the DEA that Arbabsiar recruited four men to carry out the plot and would charge a total of $1.5 million USD. Advance payments of nearly $50,000 were wired to an FBI-controlled bank account in an overt act of validating the conspiracy.

In October 2011, operative Arbabsiar and an Iran-based member of the Quds Force, Gholam Shakuri, were arrested by federal agents, according to New York Times reporting at the time. The two men were charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, use weapons of mass destruction, and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, among others. Arbabsiar later confessed to the charges and reportedly cooperated with authorities.

While the foiled plot was deemed a success for the DEA, FBI, and Mexico City, others noted the United States’ luck that the person recruited by the Soleimani Quds Force agent happened to be a federal informant. The operation also solidified the fact that state sponsors of terror had a propensity to work with non-state

[StolarStorm]

Betcha he was behind the Las Vegas mass shooting. Gun for hire thought his exit plan would work, but was likely taken down by Iranian accomplice.

[ptsal]

How many stories did the late journalist Khashoggi write about Salimini (sp)?

Birds of a feather.

[SunkenCiv]

It must have been a real letdown for Obama and his hoods to have to bust 'em.

[piasa]

“...The IRGC’s overall presence inside Yemen is overseen by Gen. Abdul Reza Shahlai, a Tehran-based commander whom the Trump administration attempted to assassinate in a 2020 drone strike inside Yemen, U.S. and Mideast officials said. American intelligence believes Shahlai is deeply involved in Tehran’s overseas terrorist operations through his role as the Qods Force’s deputy commander.

This includes a role in overseeing an unsuccessful 2011 Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Adel al-Jubeir, at a Washington, D.C. restaurant. Shahlai, who’s been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, also helped oversee IRGC attacks against U.S. military personnel in Iraq over the past two decades. The Department of Justice offered $15 million in 2019 for information related to the commander’s operations and networks....” -— Semaphore,Jon Solomon