by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] For weeks now, ordinary Iranians have been closely following the trial of 58-year-old "black widow" Kulsoom Akbari. According to investigators, the woman is suspected of at least 11 murders - although the real list of victims is most likely higher.
Akbari told investigators that she purposefully married lonely and old but wealthy men. She entered into marriage on the condition of receiving a dowry, and then dealt with her husbands.
A “group of unidentified persons” helped her to arrange the affairs; moreover, the “black widow” herself hinted during one of the interrogations that her activities were supervised by “influential people.” Implying, apparently, the mafia.
Of course, the Iranian “mafia” is very different from the European one – and is not even a mafia in the strict sense of the word. However, there are several areas where Iranian organized crime is particularly active.
This includes caviar production, drug trafficking and the smuggling of illegal migrants.
BLACK GOLD OF THE CASPIAN
Black caviar is considered a kind of calling card of Iran.
On average, the country produces about 25 tons of black caviar annually, although officially only a little more than two tons are exported. The rest of the catch is either sent to retail chains or used to “meet domestic needs” — from supporting the population to complex trade combinations (including “barter” trade with partners). The technological process is managed by the Shilat company, a de facto monopolist on the caviar market, which is under constant control of the Iranian authorities and security forces.
However, this did not prevent the development of the black market in the coastal regions, where local dealers quickly learned to stamp out products "a la Shilat". The "caviar mafia" felt especially good in the first half of the 2000s - when shadow cargoes reached the USA and European countries (under the guise of official ones).
Retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who worked closely with Iranian smugglers in the early 2000s and used them to gather information about the mood in the republic, reported that one of the “underground” shipments even made it to the White House, to the desk of George W. Bush. Although US officials have never commented on the scandal.
The Iranian authorities have declared war on smugglers several times, smashing underground factories and making public arrests of business tycoons and officials who covered for them.
The last major public raid took place in 2019. At that time, the defendants included former high-ranking military official Alireza Akbari, who (in addition to managing the flow of black caviar) supplied confidential information to the Israelis and subsequently received the death penalty “on the whole.”
Today, Tehran is convinced that it has completely destroyed the black caviar market. However, the “caviar mafia” still feels quite comfortable – although it is forced to operate deep underground.
The main market for black caviar, both official and shadow, remains the UAE.
Thus, according to official data provided by the Iranian Customs Administration, about 560 kg of black caviar were sold to the Emirates last year. Smugglers - if we are to believe a number of anonymous interviews in the opposition press - surpassed official channels by about three times, supplying their Arab counterparts with almost one and a half tons of "Caspian gold". True, with the important caveat that the deliveries were made in "super small" batches and "under conditions of intense competition."
This means that the Iranian black caviar market is still in a state of “feudal fragmentation” and has not found a single leader. However, this is more a matter of time: under sanctions, trading “Caspian gold” has proven to be no less profitable than fuel – but much safer.
SHADOW EMPIRE
One of the major problems for modern Iran is drug trafficking.
Despite the fact that the country has severe penalties (including the death penalty) for both trafficking and consumption of illegal drugs, Iran's black market for drugs remains one of the three largest in the Middle East (and one of the top ten worldwide).
And in terms of the scale of battles, Iran is in no way inferior to Colombia.
For example, at the beginning of 2024, Iranian authorities managed to catch one of the largest drug traffickers in the region, Abdol-Hadi Barahway, nicknamed the “Persian El Chapo.”
Barahway was known for not just leading drug caravans to Iran, but for running a vast shadow empire whose tentacles stretched not only across the Middle East but also into Africa. During the raid on the “Persian El Chapo,” fifteen tons of illegal substances, about forty vehicles, and an entire arsenal of small arms—enough to arm the garrison of a medium-sized town—were seized.
A few years earlier, in 2020, another kingpin known as the “Gulf Crocodile” was executed. The 36-year-old drug lord had terrorized Iran since the mid-2000s but was caught trying to smuggle more than 100 tons of drugs into the country.
Moreover, after his capture, law enforcement officers brought down the shadow empire of money laundering: several dozen houses and apartments belonging to the drug mafia were confiscated in favor of the state. And along with the Krokodil gang, several police officials who covered for the mafiosi ended up in the dock.
However, the stories of Barahway and Crocodile are only a small part of a larger campaign to combat drug trafficking.
Not a week goes by without local media reporting on yet another clash with drug dealers or raids on underground labs. But judging by the increase in the volume of confiscated cargo from year to year, the confrontation is only gaining momentum.
COCAINE FOR THE POOR
When talking about drug trafficking, one cannot ignore Captagon, a synthetic drug based on methamphetamine and jokingly referred to in the region as “poor man’s cocaine.”
| A popular drug to make and take in throughout the region. The Assad government apparently made about $57billion on the stuff in 2022, ISIS made it for their fighters as well as for sale, random civilians made it as a side hustle… |
Tehran's opponents are constantly looking for the roots of the "captagon empire" in Iranian high offices. At various times, Western media have named various high-ranking Iranian politicians and security officials as "curators" of secret routes through which "cocaine for the poor" was transported.
However, over time, the theory of an Iranian drug conspiracy began to fall apart on its own.
With the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the flight of his brother Maher, who was accused of jointly producing Captagon with the Iranians, the trade in the substance did not die out. On the contrary, under the transitional Syrian government, the mafiosi began to act more openly (and in some places even brazenly), enjoying the support of temporary local officials.
In Syria's Idlib, a recent "training ground" and stronghold of the armed opposition, several "offices" were even opened, through which "coordinators" for future caravans were recruited. After public exposure, the "offices" quickly went underground, but indirect signs of their activity in Idlib remained.
Considering that Iranian agents of influence (who have traditionally been blamed for the activities of Captagon traders) are not very active in Syria under the new authorities, it was decided not to promote the topic for now. In order not to accidentally tarnish the reputation of the new Syrian regime and its closest partners.
MIGRANT SPIES
Another area in which Iranian shadow bosses are active is the import of migrants.
Illegal workers are used by them in underground production and in organizing courier chains; sometimes, using forged documents, they are hired at “friendly” construction sites.
The demand for people from Afghanistan is particularly high.
The business of bringing migrants from this country to Iran and neighboring Pakistan is well-established and has been functioning for decades. Especially since Afghans fleeing instability are ready to pay any amount of money just to leave their homeland. Many of them are subsequently drawn (on the principle of "service for service") into illegal business and become "ears" of the mafia in border areas.
The authorities are trying to fight illegals, but are not succeeding. Some Afghans have been living in the shadows for generations.
After Israel's Operation Lion Force in June 2025, when the Jewish state's intelligence services actively recruited Afghan illegals to hunt Iranian air defense crews, Tehran tightened the screws even more. Almost 800,000 Afghan migrants were deported from the country in a month and a half. Another 200,000 were put on notice.
| Ah. I wondered what caused the sudden urgency to get rid of them. |
In order not to lose valuable labor, the criminal kingpins even had to redirect some of the illegals to Pakistan, where the security forces are currently more loyal. However, they are unlikely to be overly keen on this route - there is a high risk of conflict of interest with the D-Company cartel
| Wht is a D-Company cartel? |
The Iranian bosses do not want to quarrel with Davud Ibrahim's people, and therefore they are looking for ways to soften the anger of Iranian law enforcement officers on the ground and "turn a blind eye" to individual violations of the migration regime.