On March 13, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of the Iranian regime’s judiciary, told the state-run Shabakeye Khabar (News Network): “They say a pipeline has been extended from the airport to the sea for smuggling… This can’t be the work of an ordinary person.”
Despite being fully aware of the scale of this disaster, Iranian regime officials—from the president to the parliament speaker—do not dare to name the main culprit. Masoud Pezeshkian, the regime’s president, merely states that “a few million liters of fuel are smuggled daily,” while Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, cautiously remarks that “a powerful entity is behind fuel smuggling.” However, neither of them dares to mention the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This silence is not due to ignorance but out of fear of the consequences of exposing a network that operates under the direct protection of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Reports from local media in Baluchestan, southeast Iran, reveal that dozens of fuel tankers—each with a capacity of 36,000 liters—are smuggled daily across the borders of Sistan and Baluchestan into Afghanistan and Pakistan. This trade, which includes both fuel and gas, is entirely controlled by the IRGC, funneling vast revenues into the military organization’s coffers. To deceive public opinion, the IRGC has ordered the killing of impoverished fuel carriers to create the illusion that smuggling is conducted by ordinary individuals. The IRGC, the military arm of Khamenei and the regime’s main pillar of survival, enjoys total immunity for its crimes. Ejei further remarked: “Today, wealth accumulation has reached the point of suffocation, while some people struggle to afford their daily bread.”
Today, IRGC commanders have become the country’s most powerful financial cartel, while 96% of Iranians endure hardship and poverty. Fuel smuggling is just one part of this systematic plunder, which, under Khamenei’s support, not only continues unchecked but has also become a tool for sustaining the rule of the clerical dictatorship.
