A U.S. jury convicted Iranian national Rafat Amirov (a.k.a Farkhadin Mirzoev and "Rome") and Georgian national Polad Omarov (a.k.a. Araz Aliyev, Polad Qaqa, and Haci Qaqa) of attempting to murder Masih Alinejad, a U.S.-based journalist, in New York in 2022. Amirov and Omarov, who are high-ranking members of an Azeri faction of the Russian Mob, were hired by members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to kill Alinejad because of her work publicizing Iranian government’s human rights abuses. The two men directed U.S. resident Khalid Mehdiyev to surveil Alinejad at her residence and attempt to murder her. The scheme was thwarted when police discovered Mehdiyev's weapon during a traffic stop.