Royal Marine linked to Iranian arms smuggling ring

The revelation is the latest link between the Iranians and the Taliban following an operation last February in which British Special Forces found 48 powerful rockets and 1000 rounds of ammunition in two lorries in the southern province of Nimroz.

A letter from Philip Parham, the head of the British Mission to the United Nations, written to the chairman of the UN Security Council Committee on Iran says: "Over a period of years elements of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are in regular contact with Taliban facilitators and have worked with them to provide material to Taliban fighters."

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told the BBC's File on Four programme that Iran was "hypocritical, two faced and highly dangerous."

Andrew Faulkner was jailed last year for arms smuggling but a BBC investigation has revealed that some of the high quality scopes he was trading in were eventually taken to Afghanistan.

Faulkner, from the village of Sutton St. James in Lincolnshire, spent 14 years in the military, including a spell with Special Forces.

When he left, he set up business as a security consultant doing close protection work in both Iraq and Afghanistan and had a sideline trading in military equipment.

Between October 2008 and February 2009 bulk quantities of high specification rifle sights used by precision marksmen in the armed forces and imported from Germany were delivered to his farmhouse.

HM Revenue and Customs were tipped off to one consignment of 100 scopes at a warehouse in Heathrow, destined for Dubai.

When they raided Faulkner's home, they seized his computer and discovered the scopes were actually destined for Tehran.

Falkner was charged with export control violations for trying to ship military goods without a licence.

He co-operated with the authorities and pleaded guilty, and was jailed for two and half years.

The investigation led to an Italian team of smugglers, led by Bakhtiyari Houmayoun and Alessandro Bon, who were allegedly trying to transport explosive fuses for bombs along with 800 scopes over the course of three years.

Two of the scopes were later found by German soldiers in Afghanistan.

Source: telegraph.co.uk