According to reports from Western intelligence agencies, the plot of the Iranian regime kidnapped or assassinated dissidents, journalists and political enemies rose sharply.

These attempts have escalated significantly since 2022, even U.S. President Donald Trump It is said that Target. In the UK, police are questioning many Iranians arrested earlier this month on suspicion of planned terrorist attacks. The BBC learned that the so-called target was the Israeli embassy in London.

Court documents from Türkiye and the United States - seen by BBC Eye Investigation and BBC Persian - prove that Iran has been hiring criminal gangs to commit murders on foreign lands, which the Iranian regime has previously denied. Iranian officials did not respond to new requests for comment.

These documents have repeatedly surfaced: Iranian crime boss Naji Sharifi Zindashti, known for international drug smuggling.

His name appears in the Turkish indictment, which is related to the 2017 killing of Saeed Karimian in Istanbul, the head of the Persian TV network, which broadcasts western films and shows to Iran.

Iranian authorities believe that the Kerim is a threat to Islamic values, and was sentenced to six years and three months in prison at his Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

U.S. and Turkish officials believe his death is related to mafia hatred.

But in 2019, Massoud Molavi, a defector from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Defender (IRGC), was shot dead in Istanbul, revealing the role of Zindashti's so-called Karimean assassination.

Molavi has been exposing corruption to the highest level of Iranian leaders. Turkish police discovered that Sindashti's gardener had been at the scene of assassination at Molawi and his driver had been in the murder of Karimian.

Police suspect that the gardener and the driver were dispatched by Cindashti.

Zindashti was arrested for her death with Karimian but was released in just six months, causing a legal scandal in Türkiye. A high court judge ordered a restent, but by then he had left the country.

He then fled to Iran, suspecting that he might have been working on Iran's intelligence.

Turkish investigative journalist Cengiz Erdinc claimed that Cindashti's soldiers were on the scene when those who lost to the Iranian regime were killed. "This is not the first time, but there has been a link between organized crime and intelligence agencies," he said.

More than thirty years ago, he was convicted of drug smuggling in Iran and sentenced to death. But there are rumors that he escaped from prison, which may have been orchestrated by Iranian intelligence.

"If someone sentences Iran to death after killing a guard, they are unlikely to be alive - unless there is more to this story." The BBC withheld its identity for its own safety.

"The only reasonable way he can return freely and live freely is if he has been working in Iran's intelligence services, which makes his escape seem to be part of the intelligence work plan with the Iranian security agencies and the IRGC," they told the BBC World Service.

In 2020, Zindashti's name reappeared in the Turkish indictment, related to the kidnapping of Habib Chaab, an Iranian dissident who was lured to Istanbul, kidnapped and later drove on Iran's state television.

Chaab was sentenced to death and executed. Zindashti's nephew is related to Chaab's disappearance. Zindashti denied playing any role.

Then, in 2021, Zindashti is involved in a plot in the United States. According to Minnesota court documents, the correspondence between Zindashti and members of the Hell Angels was a Canadian cycling gang that was recorded in the indictment.

Zindashti allegedly offered $370,000, including two Iranian defectors assassinated in Maryland. The FBI intervened and arrested two men before the attack.

Our investigation of court documents also found that the IRGC and its overseas operations unit Quds forces have been working with criminal organizations such as the former Soviet Union's notorious international criminal gang for kidnapping and assassination.

US and Israeli intelligence sources said the 840 unit of the main responsibility of the IRGC Quds force is to plan and build terrorist infrastructure abroad.

In March, a New York jury found two men linked to the thief to assassinate Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad. Iranian agents allegedly provided $500,000 for her killings. Just two years ago, a man with a gun was arrested near his home in Brooklyn.

Iran vows to take revenge after the assassination of senior US IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020. Since then, the United States has said Iran has been planning to kill former members of the Trump administration involved in Soleimani's death, including former national security adviser John Bolton and former CIA director and secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

In last year's U.S. presidential election, prosecutors accused Iran of murdering Donald Trump, whom Iran strongly denied.

In response to these growing threats, the United States and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on individuals related to Iran’s intelligence operations, including Cindashti, Iranian diplomats and IRGC members.

Zindashti denied working for Iranian intelligence agencies.

In 2024, MI5 director Ken McCallum reported 20 reliable threats to 20 people related to Iran.

In a case in western London, a Chechen man was arrested near the Persian TV station Iran International in London. He was convicted of collecting information for Iranian agents.

Last year, Iran International's London host Pouria Zerati was attacked by a knife. Soon after, two men were arrested in Romania at the request of the British counter-terrorism police.

Sources from the UK security department told the BBC the men were part of the thief allegedly employed by Iranian agents.

Sima Sabet, host of Iran International, was one of the targets, but attempts to blow up her car failed.

“When they realized they couldn’t fix the bomb to my car, the agent told the man to do the job quietly,” said Sima, who had seen the police file. "He asked them how quiet they were, and they replied: 'Silent like a kitchen knife.'"

German prosecutors killed the entire Iranian leader in 1992 after four Iranian Kurdish leaders were assassinated by masked gunmen in a restaurant in Berlin. The attack was conducted by Iranian agents and the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement.

The Iranian intelligence minister issued an international arrest warrant, the court declared assassinated and known as Iran's supreme leader and president.

Since then, the Iranian regime seems to have been hiring criminal organizations for kidnapping and killing to avoid linking the attack to the regime.

But Matt Jukes, the British anti-terrorism police chief, said police are relatively prone to infiltrating criminal groups because they don’t match the Iranian regime.

This is what he calls Iran’s “spreading infiltration” and the police try to destroy it.