Iranian Pleads Guilty to Aiding Illegal Alien With Ties to Terrorism

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Iranian national Sharon Gohari pleaded guilty on Tuesday to unlawfully smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States—including one with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—and intentionally receiving child pornography, The Daily Signal has learned.

Gohari, a naturalized U.S. citizen who resided alternately in Iran and Nassau County, New York, asked for and received payments from Iranian nationals and others seeking to enter the United States illegally, according to the Department of Justice. These transactions occurred between at least December 2020 up to his arrest in May 2025.

Gohari aided at least one person in entering the U.S. who had associations with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the State Department designates a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“Gohari made a business of smuggling aliens into the United States, at least one of whom had ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organization,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a statement. “I applaud the investigators and prosecutors who made possible today’s plea, taking this defendant off our streets.”

In early 2021, Gohari facilitated the travel of an illegal alien from Iran to Turkey, then to Mexico and into the United States, where border patrol agents detained him, according to the Justice Department.

The alien confessed to law enforcement that he had previously carried out tasks in Iran and Malaysia for the IRGC.

During the investigation, police discovered that Gohari received and stored multiple videos on his phone depicting the rape of children as young as five years old. He also had filmed women around New York City without their knowledge, including taking photos and videos appeared to be taken at close range to see under the women’s skirts, according to the Justice Department.

Gohari faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and up to 20 years in prison for the child sex abuse material charge, as well as a mandatory minimum of three years in prison for alien smuggling and up to 10 years in prison.

While Gohari resided in Roslyn, New York, he traveled frequently to Iran. He primarily received thousands of dollars per client to facilitate the entry of foreign nationals through Mexico, according to the Justice Department.

Gohari helped these individuals obtain travel visas at the Mexican embassy in Iran and helped arrange their travel to and through Mexico and into the United States in large groups.

“Our Office will continue to aggressively pursue transnational criminal schemes operating here in the United States, especially when they involve terrorist groups like the IRGC that seek to do us harm,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. for the Eastern District of New York said. “In doing so, he also put our national security at risk and circumvented the vital procedures that are in place to vet those entering our country. And we will always prosecute the sexual exploitation of children to the fullest extent of the law.”

The DOJ’s Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section is handling the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew D. Reich is in charge of the prosecution with assistance from Trial Attorney Kevin Nunnally of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Paralegal Specialist Wayne Colon.