Five Iranian nationals were arrested earlier this month near Mooers Forks, New York, while attempting to enter the United States from Canada illegally, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman said Tuesday.
"On July 1… agents located a minivan occupied by five citizens of Iran and two citizens of Uzbekistan," CBP's Swanton Sector said in a statement as reported by Fox News. "They are currently detained and pending removal proceedings."
All seven men had previously been apprehended for unlawful entry into the US, CBP said. The arrest occurred near the Champlain Station, a border patrol unit operating in a rural stretch of northern New York, near the Canadian border.
Fox News Digital highlighted renewed warnings earlier this month from former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam, who suggested Iranian-linked operatives may already be embedded in the US. “Where these sleeper cells may be is in plain sight,” Gilliam said. “And that's the real terrifying part.”
This comes as the US airstrikes in June targeted Iranian nuclear infrastructure and there are growing concerns around individuals tied to Iran entering Western countries under unclear pretenses.
In recent weeks, Iranian hardliners and clerics have repeatedly threatened to kill US President Donald Trump.
A December 2023 US State Department report documented plots by Iranian operatives in the US and Europe, including a foiled assassination attempt in New York and attempts to collect information for terrorist purposes on the London-based Iran International.
Other European states—including Albania, Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands—have taken actions in recent years against Iranian-linked actors accused of involvement in similar schemes.
