Iranian Military Imports Worth $2.3 Billion Revealed by Shipping Records
Key Facts
Iranian agency MOD 346428 imported military equipment worth $2.3 billion between January 2025 and June 2026, according to a Reuters investigation based on records from ImportGenius. The figure places the agency’s purchases at the center of a broader investigation into Iranian import networks under sanctions and a U.S. blockade. Reuters said more than 5,000 agencies with names beginning with the letters MOD form a financial and military network, with traces of their transactions appearing in shipping documents since 2016. The investigation does not attribute the $2.3 billion figure to the network as a whole, but to the specified agency’s imports. It also found no evidence that the numbered agencies cited in the documents had been placed on Western sanctions lists.
The investigation drew on a sample of about 19,000 import records and cross-checked some of them against shipping documents, social media images and official media reports. It said most imported goods were exempt from duties and registered as military equipment. But experts said many items, including some explosives, could have dual uses and civilian purposes as well. Shipments in the first half of 2026 included detonators worth $1.9 million, along with tons of explosives, aircraft engine parts, components for rocket fuel and heavy launch vehicles. In a separate shipment, the agency imported 886 tons of chemicals to the Bandar Abbas port complex between January and April 2025, with China recorded as their origin; the category includes sodium chlorate and perchlorates used in producing solid rocket fuel.
Import records showed multiple routes for bringing materials into Iran, including cargo ships from Russia via the Caspian Sea, trucks from Central Asia and cargo planes from China. The data said 97% of the shipments Reuters reviewed were settled without currency conversion. Monthly imports show a change in the pace of flows during 2026, falling 47% to $54 million in March from the previous month. They then rose to $77 million in May. These monthly figures cover the imports tracked by the data, while the $2.3 billion figure remains the total imports of MOD 346428 over the period specified by the investigation.
Purchases included Iveco trucks; the agency imported another 435 trucks between January 2025 and June 2026. The investigation tracked some of the vehicles using satellite images and social media, spotting them at a customs yard near Tehran in February 2025, and matched three vehicle identification numbers to import data. Iveco said its official distributors are required to ensure its products are not used for military, chemical, biological or nuclear purposes. Separately, a shipment of Russian detonators in June 2026 was worth about $1.9 million, and the last five similar shipments had totaled $7.6 million since the start of 2025. Detonators can be used to trigger high explosives, including those found in drone and missile warheads, according to Reuters’ description of the shipment.
An Emirati official rejected allegations concerning the use of his country’s territory for these activities, calling them “baseless” and saying they “have no basis and represent a distortion of the UAE’s policies and actions.” China’s Foreign Ministry said it was unaware of the situation described and rejected what it called attempts to “maliciously link regional hostilities to China or smear China.” Against the backdrop of sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on September 29 sanctions on 10 individuals and entities it said had purchased weapons and weapons components for Iran’s Defense Ministry. The department had announced the “Economic Outcast” operation on August 24 to counter networks it said facilitate smuggling, sanctions evasion and financing for the Iranian regime. On a parallel diplomatic track, The Associated Press reported that regional mediators were working in October to bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table.