A Massachusetts man and one other person are accused of being involved in a deadly drone attack overseas. And federal officials believe they were intentionally undermining the United States' national security.
It was quite the scene in Natick on Monday as dozens of federal agents descended on the relatively quiet Woodland Street neighborhood, walking in and out of a 2-story home, gathering evidence for hours.
The man who lived here, Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, is a dual Iranian American citizen who works for a semiconductor company out of Norwood.
FBI investigators say he and a man named Mohammad Abedini, who lives in Milan, Italy, worked together to export U.S. technology over to Abedini's company overseas that allegedly used parts to manufacture the drone that carried out the deadly strike on the American military Tower 22, located near the northeast corner of Jordan on the Syrian border.
The Jan. 28 drone strike killed three American soldiers — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross — and injured another 47. In the attack, the one-way attack drone may have been mistaken for a U.S. drone that was expected to return back to the logistics base about the same time and was not shot down. Instead, it crashed into living quarters.
Federal officials claim Abedini's company has deep connections to the Iranian government, military, and to a U.S.-defined terrorist organization known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Watch the full press conference below:
Both Sadeghi and Abedini are charged with export control violations, and Abedini separately faces charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran.
Read the indictment below:
"It is concerning. It makes me want to know what's going on," Jon Link, a neighbor of Sadeghi's, told NBC10 Boston. "I've been here 15 years. Again, I'm shocked to see the media here and of course the law enforcement agencies."
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey also weighed in on the investigation Tuesday.
"Obviously very alarming and terrifying allegations," she said. "So I'm really glad the federal authorities were able to quickly get on it and apprehend this individual and the other individual, and we need to continue working together — state, local and federal law enforcement — in these challenging times where there's stuff happening all over the world, and I certainly will continue to do that as governor."
We are far from the end of this investigation. Officials with the FBI said more people could be arrested and charged. But right now, Sadeghi is facing felony charges and was ordered to remain in custody of U.S. Marshals until his detention hearing. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Meanwhile, the FBI is working with Italian officials to get Abedini extradited to the U.S.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
