An investigation was triggered when the International Atomic Energy Agency received an e-mail that alleged the shipment of illegal goods to Iran, naming Javedan Mehr Toos (JMT) as the recipient. JMT received valves used on cylinders to transport uranium powder, valves used in the uranium enrichment process, and vacuum gauges. According to the e-mail, JMT acquired the valves from an intermediary named Vikas Kumar Talwar representing Zheijiang Ouhai Trade Corp., a Chinese company that is a subsidiary of Wenzhou-based Jinzhou Group. Vikas Kumar Talwar and Zheijiang Ouhai Trade Corp.

German federal prosecutors charged Iranian citizen Mohsen Afrasiabi, German businessman Heinz Ulrich Kessel, and Iranian-German dual national Bezhad Sahabi with violating an arms embargo against Iran and European Union export restrictions on dual-use materials. The three men were accused of exporting a vacuum sintering furnace to Iran valued at about €850,000 ($1.1 million); such furnaces are required to apply refractory linings to guidance components of long-range missiles.

Mahmoud Yadegari, an Iranian-born Canadian citizen who ran a business in Toronto, was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months' imprisonment after being found guilty, in Canada, of attempting to illegally export U.S.-origin pressure transducers to Iran through Dubai in March 2009. Pressure transducers can be used in gas centrifuge uranium enrichment and are subject to United Nations sanctions on nuclear-related exports to Iran. Yadegari was the first individual in Canada to be tried and convicted for violating a combination of Canadian sanction and export control laws.

Italian police seized 7 tons of RDX (T4) explosive found on board a cargo ship in the southern Italian port of Gioia Tauro on August 28, 2010. The explosives were found aboard the vessel M/S Finland, which flies a Liberian flag, and is owned by a Swiss-Italian shipping company. The shipment appears to have originated in Iran and, according to the cargo's bill of lading, was headed to Syria. Rahkaran Gham Co. of Tehran was listed as the shipper and Saleh Algaber Trading Co. of Damascus was named as the consignee. The shipment violates U.N.

The UK's Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced that all export licenses to Iran for items included on the European Union list of dual-use goods, along with brokering services and technical or financial assistance related to such items, would now be refused, "except in cases where there is manifestly no risk." Examples of the dual-use items targeted by BIS include nickel alloy pipes, vacuum pumps, radiation detectors, spectrometers, heat furnaces and specialized gaskets (a complete list of the relevant dual-use materials is published in Annex IV of Counc

On December 8, 2010, South Korean officials seized some 300 phosphor bronze wire mesh rolls with potential nuclear uses from a Korean Air Cargo jet at Seoul International Airport. The measurements of these rolls correspond to use in a water distillation column for heavy water production. The mesh rolls arrived from China and were bound for Pentane Chemistry Industries (PCI) in Iran following transshipment in Turkey. The shipment violates several U.N Security Council resolutions that bar Iran from importing items that could contribute to its heavy water-related capability.