US slaps sanctions on Venezuela-Iran drone pipeline, missile supply network

The Treasury Department slapped additional sanctions Tuesday on 10 people and entities based in Venezuela and Iran accused of aiding Tehran’s drone and missile programs — including a Venezuelan firm that assembles Iranian-designed combat drones.

Aragua, Venezuela-based Empresa Aeronautica Nacional SA and its chairman, Jose Jesus Urdaneta Gonzalez, was targeted for helping acquire and assemble Mohajer-series drones from Iran’s Qods Aviation Industries, the department said in its sanctions announcement.

“Iran’s ongoing provision of conventional weapons to Caracas constitutes a threat to US interests in the Western Hemisphere, including the Homeland, and the United States will use all available measures to prevent this trade,” the Treasury proclaimed.

The ballistic drones are rebranded “ANSU series” in Venezuela, and include armed models capable of launching Iran-designed guided bombs, according to the department.

“Treasury is holding Iran and Venezuela accountable for their aggressive and reckless proliferation of deadly weapons,” said Treasury Under Secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley. “We will continue to take swift action to deprive those who enable Iran’s military-industrial complex access to the US financial system.”

The sanctions also target Iran-based operatives accused of procuring chemicals used in ballistic missiles — including sodium perchlorate, sebacic acid and nitrocellulose — for Parchin Chemical Industries, a key arm of Iran’s defense sector.

Treasury further named and shamed firms and executives tied to Rayan Fan Kav Andish Co., a Tehran tech group whose subsidiaries produced components and software for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ drone and aerospace programs.

All US-linked assets of the designated individuals and companies are frozen, and Americans are barred from doing business with them. Foreign banks that knowingly facilitate major transactions could also face sanctions.

The move builds on earlier US and United Nations actions aimed at curbing Iran’s drone, missile and conventional weapons activities — and spotlights Iran’s partnership with Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime.

Caracas has also helped Iran by providing safe harbor for terrorists in Iran’s Lebanon-based Hezbollah proxy, creating a bridge for jihadists to cross to the Western Hemisphere.

It is partly for that reason that Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Maduro’s regime the biggest danger to the US this side of the Atlantic earlier this month.

“The single most serious threat to the United States from the Western Hemisphere is from transnational terrorist criminal groups — primarily focused on narco trafficking, but they’re on all sides’ businesses as well,” Rubio said at the time.

“… They invite Hezbollah and Iran to operate from their territory.”