Exclusive | Neighbors blow the lid on Iranian arms dealer’s shady LA lair — and the steady stream of late-night arrivals

An accused arms dealer who was arrested at LAX had a stream of suspicious-looking men in and out of her Los Angeles condo, neighbors have claimed.

Shamim Mafi, 44, was allegedly operating on behalf of the Iranian regime out of a two-bed, three-bathroom townhouse in Woodland Hills.

Neighbors say they barely saw her but spotted multiple shady men visiting, with one who had ultra-luxe clothing seen smoking on her balcony.

Mafi was arrested on Saturday night and charged with brokering deals for Iranian drones, bombs, and millions of rounds of ammunition bound for Sudan.

She allegedly conducted the deals while in close contact with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, which provided instruction and funds for her to open a business in the US to operate out of.

Shamim Mafi, 44, was allegedly operating out of a townhouse in Woodland Hills. Facebook/Shamim Mafi

Neighbors say they barely saw her but spotted multiple shady men visiting. Rafael Fontoura for CA Post

Mafi’s LA neighbors Paul Hillson, 68, and wife Diane Maston, 66, were home on Saturday when the FBI raided Mafi’s home at 9pm.

“We went for a walk and there were about five or six undercover and unmarked cars,’ Hillson told the Post.

“They knocked on the door and yelled ‘FBI, we have a search warrant.’ They removed black sealed boxes of evidence.’

The couple said they never saw Mafi.  Hillson added: “There was also sorts of suspicious s*** going on at that place. It’s always been a unit where there was weird activity.

“There’d be intermittent visitors coming by, people picking stuff up. There was a guy who stayed there and you could feel the danger. Something wasn’t right.

“There was another strange guy who would smoke on the balcony although smoking isn’t allowed. He was very scary.

One neighbor said: “There was also sorts of suspicious s*** going on at that place.” Rafael Fontoura for CA Post

A real estate source told the Post the property wasn’t owned by Mafi. Rafael Fontoura for CA Post

“He was wearing a Gucci jacket and an expensive watch. He had a dangerous vibe. And then he was gone.

“There was all these visitors who would come buy and pick stuff up and then we’d not seem them again.”

Maston told the Post they would hear a “peculiar noise” coming from Mafi’s home in the middle of the night “like a machine” that would wake her up.

She added: “Three women were there a week ago clearing stuff out. They were hosing down the garage and there was some mattresses in there.”

A real estate source told the Post the property wasn’t owned by Mafi. Next door neighbor Mark confirmed the Feds raided Mafi’s home. He said he’d only seen her one time in the past but they hadn’t spoke.

Mafi was arrested on Saturday night and charged with brokering deals for the Iranian regime. Facebook/Shamim Mafi

Woodland Hills is a suburb of Los Angeles. Rafael Fontoura for CA Post

Security guard Amir Abolghasemi, 60, originally from Tehran, said Mafi waved at him in the past when she was by her garage.

The 60-year-old, told the Post: “The Iranian government is crazy. That’s why we’re here.” He said people who help the regime “work for money… just for money. They are terrorists.”

Mafi, who left Iran in 2013 and became a permanent resident of the US in 2016 under the Obama administration, allegedly used an Oman-registered company, Atlas International Business, to broker weapons deals as recently as 2025, according to court records.

Among the sales was a contract for more than $70 million for Iranian-made Mohajer-6 armed drones from Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.

The drones, along with 55,000 bomb fuses, were transferred in deals with the Sudanese Ministry of Defense, which has been fighting in a bloody civil war since 2023.

Iran has been repeatedly accused of violating a United Nations arms embargo amid the Sudanese civil war, with its drones spotted in use by the government forces.

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