Iran built a hidden network of more than 5,000 numbered defence agencies that has imported at least $2 billion worth of hardware, explosives and heavy-duty trucks since January 2025, despite Western sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade, a Reuters investigation published on Thursday found. The agencies carry names beginning with the letters MOD, for Ministry of Defense, followed by a five- or six-digit number, and they all share a Tehran address with Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).

Source: Reuters investigation, via Clash Report

Reuters said the investigation rests on thousands of Iranian bank and government records, corporate filings and import data, including about 19,000 import records, traced with 240 Analytics, an Israeli-American risk consultancy. Four experts on Iranian sanctions and weapons who reviewed the findings told Reuters many of the materials could be used in Iran's missile and drone programmes, while noting that much of the material, even explosives, is dual-use and can also have civilian purposes.

One agency alone, MOD 346428, imported $2.3 billion of military hardware between January 2025 and June 2026, according to ImportGenius records cited by Reuters — $2.3 billion is about $230 crore. Its shipments included rocket propellants, explosives and weapons components used to make drones and missiles, plus heavy-duty trucks that can serve as missile launchers, with much of the hardware recorded as originating in China, Russia and Germany. The same agency imported 886 tonnes of chemicals into the Bandar Abbas port complex between January and April 2025 under a code covering sodium chlorates and other perchlorates, key precursors for solid rocket fuel; Reuters said it could not determine whether chemicals in the final shipment were responsible for the explosion at the port in April 2025 that killed at least 70 people.

Source: Reuters investigation, via Europe Says

The imports did not stop when the war began on February 28. Monthly volumes fell 47 percent to $54 million in March, then recovered to $77 million by May, and deliveries in the first half of 2026 included detonators, tonnes of explosives, aircraft engine parts and rocket fuel ingredients. The goods entered Iran by cargo ship across the Caspian Sea from Russia, by truck from Central Asia and by freight plane from China, Reuters said. End users of the network include the military unit overseeing Iran's ballistic missile programme and Sahara Thunder, the drone maker the United States sanctioned in 2024 for supplying drones to Russia.

The agencies operate through frontmen and foreign shell companies, known collectively as trustees, who buy goods with proceeds from oil sales, Reuters said. In 97 percent of the shipments it reviewed, transactions were recorded as settled “without currency transfer.” Bank Sepah records showed 36 of the agencies held $1.2 billion in foreign currency deposits at the end of 2024 — about $120 crore — and Reuters said it found no evidence that any of the numbered agencies has been designated by Western governments. Former senior U.S. Treasury sanctions official Miad Maleki told the agency the agencies form a foreign-trade system parallel to the formal global economy, and Columbia University researcher Peter Salisbury called the effort “an industrial-scale effort to rebuild or expand Iran's existing fleet” of drones and missiles.

A U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman told Reuters the United States “has severed the regime's economic lifelines,” adding: “While the regime may continue its desperate attempts to evade our powerful sanctions, fund its military and weapons programs, and access foreign currency, we are always 10 steps ahead.” China's foreign ministry said it was “unaware of the situation you describe” and firmly opposed attempts to “smear China's reputation.” Iveco, whose 435 trucks were imported by MOD 346428, told Reuters any presence of its vehicles in Iran occurred beyond its control, and Toyota said it does not do business in Iran and had no knowledge of the purchases. Russia's defence ministry, the White House and U.S. Central Command did not respond, Reuters said.