Iran Used 5,000 Hidden Military Agencies to Import Billions in Hardware Despite U.S. Blockade

Iran has created a secret network of more than 5,000 military agencies to import at least $2 billion in hardware, explosives and heavy-duty trucks since January 2025, evading the U.S. naval blockade and Western sanctions, a Reuters investigation published on October 29 found.

The agencies carry names beginning with the letters MOD, for ministry of defense, followed by a five- or six-digit number. Reuters said they all share a Tehran address with Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and form the backbone of the country’s military procurement and sanctions-evasion apparatus.

Reuters said the investigation is based on thousands of Iranian bank and government records, corporate filings and import data, including about 19,000 import records. It identified the agencies with 240 Analytics, an Israeli-American risk consultancy that analyzes data on terrorism risk and financing for corporate and government clients.

The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports was suspended in June and resumed in mid-July. It remains in effect, Reuters said.

More Than 5,000 Agencies Share a Defense Ministry Address

Reuters said the agencies list their incorporation date as February 11, 1979, but most were established in 2013, as Iran struggled under sanctions. Their financial footprints appear on bills of lading and other shipping data dating back to 2016.

Some are tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and to bonyads, business conglomerates controlled by Iran’s elite, according to Reuters. Phone numbers registered to 91 of the agencies also appear in Bank Sepah records of IRGC personnel with accounts there.

Reuters said it could find no evidence that any of the numbered agencies has been designated by Western governments.

Noam Binstok, a senior analyst at 240 Analytics, said he found the numbered entities in June 2025 while uploading Bank Sepah documents that circulate on Telegram and on WikiIran. Reuters said it could not determine who runs WikiIran, a website that says it is operated by Iranians in exile who oppose the government. WikiIran told Reuters the materials are authentic. Reuters said it reviewed the bank records itself.

“These numbered agencies are the plumbing behind the Islamic Republic’s global sanctions evasion network and so much more,” Binstok said.

Reuters said four experts on Iranian sanctions and weapons reviewed its findings and confirmed that many of the materials could be used in Iran’s missile and drone programs. They also noted that much of the material, even explosives, is dual-use and could have civilian purposes.

One Agency Imported $2.3 Billion in Military Goods

Reuters singled out one agency, MOD 346428. From January 2025 through June 2026, a period that included four months of this year’s war, it imported $2.3 billion of military hardware, according to ImportGenius records cited by Reuters.

The goods included rocket propellants, explosives and weapons components critical for making drones and missiles, as well as heavy-duty trucks that can serve as missile launchers. Much of the hardware was recorded as originating in China, Russia and Germany.

Customs statistics published in Iranian media show the agency’s overseas purchases rose from $442 million in the 12 months to March 2023 to $988 million the following year, placing it among Iran’s top 10 importers, Reuters reported.

Between January and April 2025, the agency imported 886 tonnes of chemicals into the Bandar Abbas port complex, according to the import data. Their listed origin was China, under a code that includes sodium chlorates and other perchlorates, key precursors for solid rocket fuel. An explosion at the port on April 26 killed at least 70 people. Reuters said it could not determine whether the chemicals in the final shipment were responsible.

The agency also imported 435 Iveco trucks between January 2025 and June 2026, Reuters said. Iveco told Reuters that any presence of its vehicles in Iran occurred beyond its control and that most of the trucks Reuters identified in a customs yard in 2025 had been destined for Central Asia.

Reuters said end users of the network include the military unit overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile program and Sahara Thunder, which the United States sanctioned in 2024 for making drones supplied to Russia. In many instances, Reuters said, it relied on customs codes to identify shipments and declared origins without being able to confirm them independently.

Oil Money and Shell Companies Pay the Bills

The agencies operate through frontmen and foreign shell companies, known collectively as trustees, who use proceeds from illicit oil sales to buy goods for Iran, Reuters said. Separately, the crude Iran held on tankers in Asian waters to supply buyers in China was exhausted by mid-October, according to analytics firm Kpler.

For 97% of the shipments Reuters reviewed, transactions were recorded as settled “without currency transfer,” the import data shows. Miad Maleki, a former senior U.S. Treasury sanctions official, told Reuters the agencies form a foreign-trade system parallel to the formal global economy.

Bank Sepah records showed that 36 of the agencies held $1.2 billion in foreign currency deposits at the end of 2024, and the rest of the network held about $1.8 billion in local currency, Reuters said.

Imports Continued Through the War

Reuters said the material entered Iran by cargo ship across the Caspian Sea from Russia, by truck from Central Asia and by freight plane from China, according to documents it reviewed and ImportGenius records.

The import data shows monthly volumes fell 47% to $54 million in March from the previous month, then rose to $77 million by May. Deliveries in the first half of 2026 included $1.9 million of detonators, tonnes of explosives, aircraft engine parts and rocket fuel ingredients. Reuters said a June shipment of Russian detonators was the last of five similar shipments worth $7.6 million since the start of 2025.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of trucks, aircraft engine components and electronics were listed as coming from Germany and elsewhere in the European Union, Reuters said, including $34 million of Iveco trucks. An EU spokesperson told Reuters that member states are responsible for enforcing EU sanctions. Reuters said the data also shows $27 million of goods bought by the Iranian military and recorded as originating in the United Arab Emirates since the war began. The UAE did not respond to a request for comment.

Peter Salisbury, a Columbia University researcher on Iranian arms transfers, called it “an industrial-scale effort to rebuild or expand Iran’s existing fleet” of drones and missiles. Reuters said the United States and Israel have targeted Iran’s missile and drone production since the Iran war began on February 28, but it could not determine the extent of the damage.

Responses From Washington, Beijing and Tehran

None of the Iranian government entities or companies Reuters contacted responded to detailed requests for comment, including Tehran’s U.N. delegation in Geneva and the presidency. No separate Iranian response had been reported at the time of writing.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman said the United States “has severed the regime’s economic lifelines.” She added: “While the regime may continue its desperate attempts to evade our powerful sanctions, fund its military and weapons programs, and access foreign currency, we are always 10 steps ahead.”

Treasury has been pursuing Iran’s remaining revenue and procurement channels under Operation Economic Outcast, a sanctions campaign Secretary Scott Bessent announced on August 24. Treasury said it sanctioned nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels that day. Reuters did not describe that program in its investigation.

China’s foreign ministry told Reuters it was “unaware of the situation you describe” and said: “We firmly oppose attempts to maliciously link regional hostilities to China or smear China’s reputation.” Russia’s defense ministry, the White House and U.S. Central Command did not respond, Reuters said.