On May 13, 2013, A Nigerian court sentenced Azim Aghajani, allegedly a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and his Nigerian accomplice Ali Usman Abbas Jega, to five years in prison for their role in an arms smuggling case. Aghajani and Jega were charged with falsifying shipping documents and hiding mortars and rockets among 13 containers of building. The arms shipment was due for re-export to The Gambia, according to court documents, and may have been destined for a rebel group in southern Senegal. Nigerian authorities intercepted the Iranian arms as they were unloaded in Tin Can Port, Lagos on July 15, 2010. The weapons, dispatched by Behineh Trading Co. of Tehran in violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1747, included 240 tons of ammunition, 107mm rockets, and 60mm, 81mm and 120mm mortar shells. The French-based shipping company CMA-CGM, which carried the shipment, said a false cargo declaration was to blame. Israeli defense sources reportedly believe that Nigeria may be a new stop on a smuggling route from Iran to Hamas. Several entities have been sanctioned for their involvement in this incident as well as their ties to Iran’s Qods Force, a unit of the IRGC. Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, Azim Aghajani, and Behineh Trading Co. were sanctioned by the European Union on December 1, 2011 for their role in "furnishing ammunition from Iran via Nigeria." Esmail Ghani, Ali Abbas Usman Jega, Aghajani, Tabatabaei, and Behineh Trading Co. were added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on March 27, 2012. The United Nations also designated Aghajani, Tabatabaei, and Behineh Trading Co. on April 18, 2012 for violating resolution 1747, which prohibits arms exports from Iran.

Iranian national Saeid Mohabat was extradited from Cyprus to the United States on charges of attempting to purchase F-4 and F-5 plane parts from the United States for shipment to Iran. Mohabat was in phone and e-mail contact with an undercover American agent posing as a supplier of pitot static tubes, which are used to measure air speed. The deal was reportedly orchestrated by another Iranian national named Safavi, who allegedly planned to transship about 2,000 plane parts to Iran using fake documents, first via Tajikistan or Turkey and then via China or Brazil. Safavi sent Mohabat to Cyprus to seek the return of a $50,000 payment made to the supplier after the parts never arrived in Iran. Mohabat, 45, was subsequently arrested upon arrival at Cyprus’s Larnaca airport on October 27, 2012 by local authorities acting on an Interpol warrant. He was handed over to U.S. agents at the end of April 2013. Iran withdrew its ambassador to Cyprus in protest following the decision to extradite.

Shahab Ghasri, a naturalized Swedish citizen of Iranian origin, was found guilty of violating international sanctions against Iran. The verdict was delivered by a Swedish district court in February 2013; Ghasri was given a three month suspended jail sentence. Between February and April 2011, Ghasri attempted to sell vacuum pumps and corrosion-resistant valves to Iran. The shipment was intercepted by Swedish customs officials, who checked the dual-use products and discovered that the cargo’s final destination was not Dubai, as declared, but Iran. The valves are not on a U.N. list of goods that Iran is prohibited from importing, but they could be used in uranium enrichment. According to a U.N. report, the "bellows sealed valves" have direct nuclear applications and the "non-bellows sealed valves" could use used in "auxiliary systems." Ghasri's used multiple techniques to evade controls, including by obscuring the end-user and dealing with technology that falls below international control levels. Ghasri set up his company, Petroinstrument HB, "in order to procure items on behalf of Iranian entities," according to the U.N. report. The company is based in Lund, Sweden.

A U.S. district court in New York charged Hamid Reza Hashemi, Murat Taskiran, and Amir Abbas Tamimi on December 5, 2012 with illegally exporting and attempting to export goods such as carbon fiber and helicopter parts from the United States to Iran.

In November 2012, Spanish Customs raided the headquarters of ONA Electroerosion S.A. because of concerns that the Spanish machine tool manufacturer had smuggled nuclear-useable items to Iran, in violation of international sanctions. Spanish authorities initiated an investigation of the transfers in January 2013, and have reported the case to the U.N. Panel of Experts on Iran. In April 2010, ONA Electroerosion exported to Iran seven electrical discharge machine tools in three separate shipments. The machines were first sent to a front company in Turkey, which was set up by the Iranian importer in order to facilitate the transaction. Mapna Turbine Blade Manufacturing Engineering Co. was identified as the end-user of the tools. This company is sanctioned by Canada and listed as an entity of concern by Japan and the United Kingdom for its ties to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. According to the U.N. Panel of Experts, the electrical discharge machines sent to Iran had only a single rotating axis and are not included on nuclear control lists, which restrict sales of such machines with two or more contouring rotary axes. However, software can be installed to upgrade the machines transferred to Iran that would bring them above the control level. The U.N. Panel noted that procuring dual-use items below control thresholds, and upgrading them, is a method used by Iran to get around sanctions. The operation by Spanish authorities, code-named 'Kakum,' was launched following a 2009 attempt by ONA to export the same machines directly to Iran. The export license for this sale was refused by Spanish authorities because of concern that the equipment could be used in Iran's nuclear program. Those responsible for the transfers could face prison sentences and fines of up to six times the value of the exported machines. The machines are valued at $1,200,000.

A U.S. district court in New York indicted Iranian citizen Alireza Moazimi Goudarzi on November 15, 2012, for his alleged role in illegally exporting and attempting to export military and civilian aircraft parts from the United States to Iran. Goudarzi used multiple pseudonyms, such as “Mikel Scofield,” “Mike Brown,” and “Sebastian Wilson,” and a global network of co-conspirators in an effort to circumvent the U.S. embargo.