An Iranian national arrested in Colombia faces U.S. charges for allegedly orchestrating a human smuggling network that brought Iranians into the United States. 

Colombian authorities issued an arrest warrant for 57-year-old Jafar Tafakori on April 23 at the request of the United States, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Tafakori is charged with conspiracy to bring an alien to the United States, and five counts of bringing an alien to the United States for financial gain.

“Securing our borders and stopping alien smuggling is a top priority for the Department of Justice,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche when the DOJ announced Tafakori’s charges. 

According to the DOJ’s press release, the defendant charged illegal immigrants as much as $30,000 for his services, coordinating shelter, transportation, and even airline tickets to travel through South and Central America and Mexico.

“Jafar Tafakori allegedly smuggled Iranian nationals illegally into the United States for 18 months,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. 

“Those who endanger our communities by participating in human smuggling across our borders will be apprehended regardless of if they live in the United States or abroad.”

The United States has been engaged in armed conflict with Iran since late February, along with allies in Israel. 

Earlier this month, an intelligence report warned of Iran’s “persistent threat” to the United States.

A March 20 report by the FBI notified local and state law enforcement of an elevated threat posed by Iran’s government.

The agency warned of threats to U.S. military and government personnel and buildings, Jewish and Israeli institutions, and Iranian dissidents in the United States.

The report cited “the potential for elevated physical threats” to targets in the United States: “Violent extremists with a variety of ideological backgrounds, including those who oppose the U.S. or Israel, also may see this conflict as a justification for violence.”

Additionally, the federal agency stated that Tehran is known to use operatives with existing legal status, or access to the United States to carry out plots involving firearms, or other attacks, including “stabbings, vehicle rammings, bombings, poisoning, strangling, suffocation, and arson.”

In November, President Donald Trump said he believes the country needs to re-examine immigrants from Afghanistan who entered the United States during the previous administration.

This came on the heels of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, which was called “an act of terror” by the president. The suspect came from Afghanistan in 2021.

“This heinous assault was an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,” Trump said at the time. “We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden.”

During the June 2024 CNN presidential debate, before starting his second term, Trump said that he believed the nation had “the largest number of terrorists coming into our country” during the Biden administration. “All terrorists all over the world. ... They come from the Middle East, everywhere.”