Long Island man guilty of smuggling Iranian with terror ties into US

A Long Island man who smuggled Iranians into the United States — including one who confessed to carrying out tasks for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges that also include receiving videos depicting children being raped.

Sharon Gohari, 48, an Iranian national and naturalized U.S. citizen who lived in Roslyn and traveled frequently to Iran, admitted in Brooklyn federal court to smuggling aliens into the country and intentionally receiving child sexual abuse material, said Joseph Nocella, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

For years, Gohari solicited and received payments from Iranian nationals seeking to enter the U.S. illegally, charging thousands of dollars per client to arrange their entry primarily through Mexico, Nocella said,

At least one individual Gohari helped get into the country had direct ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has been designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.

In early 2021, Gohari facilitated travel for an Iranian national from Iran to Turkey, then to Mexico, and into the United States, where the person was detained by border patrol. The individual confessed to law enforcement that he had previously carried out tasks in Iran and Malaysia for the IRGC.

During the investigation into Gohari’s smuggling operation, federal agents discovered he received and stored child sexual abuse material on his phone, including multiple videos depicting the rape of children apparently as young as 5 years old.

In chat communications after receiving the videos, Gohari stated his intention to seek out sexual partners in a high school.

Agents also found hundreds of photos and videos on Gohari’s devices showing women in public places across New York City — on trains and at cafes — who appeared unaware they were being photographed or recorded, Nocella said.

Some of the pictures were angled in an apparent attempt to see under women’s skirts, authorities said. Other images depicted the same women in multiple locations, indicating they had been followed.

Some passed through Central and South American countries with his assistance.

“The defendant exploited and endangered vulnerable individuals for profit, over and over again,” Nocella 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.”

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

_{Top: Tehran photo by Aref Sarkhosh, photo of Sharon Gohari provided by U.S. Attorney’s Office.}