"Exclusive"
The Platform for Tracking Organized Crime and Money Laundering in Yemen (P.T.O.C) revealed in a new report dangerous and highly sensitive information and documents issued by the security and intelligence apparatus of the pro-Iranian Houthi militia, regarding its smuggling of weapons from the Horn of Africa to Yemen and vice versa, and human trafficking.

The report, which is the second part entitled (Smuggling of Weapons and Fighters), includes confidential information, data, and precise details published for the first time, as a continuation of the first report (The Path of External Expansion and the Horn of Africa of Houthi Terrorism).

The report confirms that the Houthi militia relies heavily on smuggling weapons by boat across the Red Sea, through smugglers and African mafias, under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as it is delivered to a number of countries overlooking the Red Sea (Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan) before being assembled and delivered to the Houthis via the port of Hodeidah.

A confidential document obtained by the platform revealed the involvement of Abraham Isaias, the son of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, in arms smuggling activities to the Houthi group in Yemen.
The first Yemeni platform specializing in monitoring and tracking the financial and terrorist crimes of the Houthis, strengthens its report with documents and detailed information that revealed the existence of a wide network for smuggling weapons to some African countries via Hodeidah after they arrived there from Iran, with the aim of feeding its intelligence elements in those countries.
The platform confirmed in its report that Djibouti has been linked to malicious actors such as Iran and the Houthis, and has been accused of involvement in various activities in the black market, including money laundering, illicit financing, oil smuggling, and arms trafficking. It has also become a transit point for arms smuggling for Iran and its agents in Yemen and the region. According to intelligence information, this activity is carried out by a number of people within a large network led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard within the Houthi expansion cell in the Horn of Africa led by the so-called Abdul Wahid Abu Ras and the Security and Intelligence Service and the Houthi Jihad Office, which diversifies the sources of weapons to the Houthis, and works to obtain weapons from India and Pakistan, and then smuggles them to the Houthis in Yemen. The report reached a list of arms dealers who re-smuggle weapons from Sudan to Yemen by transporting them to the Eritrean islands, and then the smugglers transport them from the Eritrean islands by sea to Hodeidah, from where they are transferred to the Houthis. The report highlights the role of "Abdul Reza Shahlaei", who is considered a major financier and leader in Yemen, and one of the Iranian leaders responsible for arms smuggling operations to Yemen, and was the target of an unsuccessful American strike. Shahlai is one of the most prominent Iranian military leaders in Yemen, and one of the prominent leaders of the "Quds Force", the armed wing of the Revolutionary Guards, which implements Iran's expansionist project in the region by supporting sectarian militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Iran continues to supply the Houthi militia in Yemen with various types of weapons, especially since the outbreak of the war in late March 2015, to prolong the war and destabilize security and stability in Yemen and the region. The pace of smuggling weapons to the Houthis by sea has increased against the backdrop of the war that Israel has been waging against the Gaza Strip since October 7, as Iran has provided the Houthis with ballistic and winged missiles and drones to target international navigation in the Red Sea since November 19. The Platform for Tracking Organized Crime and Money Laundering in Yemen (P.T.O.C.) explains in its report that Iran uses the ports of Bandar Abbas and Jask to smuggle weapons to the Houthis via routes starting from Iran via the coasts of Al Mahrah Governorate, then from Somalia and Djibouti to the port of Hodeidah.

Intelligence sources also indicate that weapons are shipped from Iran to East Asian countries, and from there to Yemen, as Iranian smugglers use this method because there is no focus on goods coming from East Asia to Yemeni ports.

The report pointed out that Hadhramaut Governorate is one of the main smuggling routes for Iranian weapons, whether coming via land ports from Oman, or coming by sea from the coasts of Oman and neighboring Al Mahrah, or coming by sea from the coasts of Somalia and Djibouti, or those that are shipped to small boats via transit in the open sea.

As soon as the arms shipment arrives on the Yemeni shores, it is transferred to secret warehouses nearby, after which the process of smuggling it by land begins in batches, and on board trucks and commercial cargo vehicles, reaching the areas controlled by the Houthis in Sana'a and Sa'dah.
The (P.T.O.C) platform obtained information about the Houthis' smuggling of Africans, training them and exploiting them in various fields.

The terrorist Houthi militia works through a network of smugglers to transport and smuggle African refugees to and from Yemen and neighboring Gulf countries, and imposes financial fees on the refugees, which are collected by the smugglers and delivered to the Houthi security leadership, where the cost of smuggling an individual ranges between $200-500.

The official in charge of the external expansion file and the Horn of Africa, Abdul Wahid Abu Ras, along with elements and leaders of the Houthi security and intelligence apparatus, supervises the training of African elements in intelligence, military and intellectual fields in camps in the governorates of Hodeidah, Al-Jawf, Saada and Sana'a.

The report warns of the dangers of continued arms smuggling to and from the Houthis, calling for increased naval patrols in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to prevent arms smuggling and human trafficking, and imposing international sanctions on individuals and entities associated with arms smuggling and human trafficking for the benefit of the Houthi group.

Download File