The Townhouse

An Iranian arms broker was arrested in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. She had been brokering weapons deals — drones, bombs, what prosecutors called "massive weapons deals" — since 2016. Ten years. From a townhouse.

Woodland Hills is in the San Fernando Valley. It has a Trader Joe's. There is a neighborhood association. They have concerns about leaf blowers.

(This is the kind of career that does not require visible infrastructure. You do not need a shipping container in the driveway to broker an international arms deal. You need a phone and a willingness to answer it.)

Also arrested in the sweep: the niece of Qasem Soleimani, her daughter, and several other family members. The operation was coordinated by ICE. Multiple addresses. One neighborhood.

The world's largest Iranian diaspora community lives in Los Angeles, in an area sometimes called "Tehrangeles." The FBI would like the record to reflect that the arms network was operating there. The record will reflect this.

She started in 2016. That is three presidents, two pandemics, and what appears to have been a very stable career.

No one has asked the neighborhood association what it thinks. This seems like an oversight.