WASHINGTON — Two men allegedly working for "factions of the Iranian government" have been charged with plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and to attack the Saudi and Israeli embassies, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.
The criminal complaint, unsealed Tuesday in federal court in New York City, identified the two as Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri.
Holder said Arbabsiar, who was arrested on Sept. 29 in New York, was working for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and had confessed to a plot.
Shakuri, who is based in Iran, remains at large, Holder said. He allegedly is a member of Iran's Quds Force, a special unit of the Revolutionary Guard.
Both are originally from Iran and Arbabsiar, 56, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, the complaint said.
Shortly after the announcement, the Treasury Department announced that U.S. citizens are barred from any financial dealings with the two suspects and three others, all Revolutionary Guard officials.
Iran's English language Press TV quoted an Iranian official as countering that the charges are "a prefabricated scenario."
Image: Saudi ambassador
Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images
Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir was the target of an alleged plot by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the U.S. said Tuesday.
The indictment is the result of a sting operation conducted by the FBI, Holder said.
The case started when Arbabsiar, who lived in Texas, allegedly made contact with an undercover DEA informant in Mexico and asked for assistance from a major drug cartel to assassinate the ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, at a restaurant that he frequented. Sources told NBC News that the group being recruited was the Zetas cartel.
No assasination attempt was ever made, and no one was ever in any danger, officials said.
"This case illustrates that we live in a world where borders and boundaries are increasingly irrelevant," said FBI Director Robert Mueller. "A world where individuals from one country sought to conspire with a drug trafficking cartel in another country to assassinate a foreign official on United States soil. And though it reads like the pages of a Hollywood script, the impact would have been very real and many lives would have been lost."
A Justice Department statement said Arbabsiar claimed he was being directed by his cousin in Iran, described as a "big general" in the Iranian military and within the Quds Force.
Arbabsiar allegedly wired $100,000 to the informant as a down payment on a $1.5 million assassination fee.
Other sources told ABC News that he reportedly told the informant that Iran could provide "tons of opium" to the Zetas.
Arbabsiar was to make a first court appearance later Tuesday. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
View complaint in alleged plot to kill Saudi ambassador (PDF)
The Quds Force was designated a terrorist group by the United States in 2007, in part because of alleged support of the Taliban and other extremist groups.
A senior U.S. official told NBC News that U.S. intelligence has a "high-degree" of confidence that the "Quds Force at the highest levels" was involved in the alleged plot and that this was not some "rogue operation."
President Barack Obama was first briefed on the alleged plot in June, said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor."The disruption of this plot is a significant achievement by our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and the president is enormously grateful for their exceptional work in this instance and countless others," Vietor said.
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Topic: Iran faction plotted to kill Saudi ambassador