U.S. federal authorities charged two men in December 2024 after it was discovered that they had sold U.S. technology to terrorist groups that was later employed in a drone strike in Jordan that claimed the lives of three U.S. soldiers. The detentions of Mahdi Mohammed Sadeghi of 85 Woodland Road, Natick, and Mohammad Abedini of Milan, Italy, are linked to a Jan. 28 incident at a U.S. military facility, Tower 22, in Jordan, say federal authorities. The incident killed three U.S. Army soldiers named Sgt. Breonna Moffett, Sgt. William Jerome Rivers and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders and wounded 47 others.
At a press conference at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse, U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy stated Sadeghi illegally exported confidential technology to terrorist entities.
“We often refer to hypothetical threats when we express concern about American technology slipping into dangerous hands,”
Levy explained.
“Unfortunately, in this instance, we are not guessing. As alleged in this criminal charge, the grave potential consequences from the leak of American technology to foreign countries came to fruition.”
During the investigation, authorities traced the drone used in the attack to Abedini’s Iranian company, which Levy said is linked to terrorist organizations. Levy explained that authorities plan to pursue his extradition to Boston. Levy confirmed that the two men had teamed up together since 2016 to circumvent laws set up to keep technology that had military applications from being illegally transferred. Items exposed included materials utilized in unmanned drones.
Using his LinkedIn page, Sadeghi is listed as a former employee of Analog Devices Inc., a Wilmington-based maker of semiconductor integrated circuits, software, and subsystems. Deputy special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office, Jodi Cohen, said the FBI apprehended Sadeghi without violence about 2 p.m. Monday at his home. She stated Sadeghi was
“a legal U.S. citizen living in Natick who we consider abandoned this land that took him to support one of the world’s most infamous state sponsors of terrorism.”
Abedini and Sadeghi are both accused of conspiring to illegally export sensitive technology. The charges against Abedini also include providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which resulted in his death.
Levy stated that he believes the arrests, somehow, benefit the families and dear ones of those killed and wounded in the occurrence.
“As a son of a combat veteran, I humbly hope today’s charges bring some measure of justice and accountability to those families,”
he added. As a result of his initial appearance in the U.S. Court in Boston, Sadeghi was ordered held without bail until Dec. 27.
