The U.S. Department of the Treasury, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has launched one of its most decisive actions against military cooperation between Iran and Venezuela, imposing sanctions on 10 individuals and entities involved in the sale, assembly, and operation of Iranian combat drones in Venezuelan territory. Washington accuses both regimes of a “reckless and aggressive” proliferation of lethal weaponry, which has a direct impact on hemispheric and global security.
This measure specifically targets the sale of millions of dollars worth of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) manufactured by Qods Aviation Industries, a cornerstone of the Iranian military complex, which have been transferred to Venezuela for nearly two decades. These drones—from the Mohajer series—not only have been supplied but also assembled, maintained, and operated within Venezuela under state supervision.
The Venezuelan arm of this operation is the Empresa Aeronáutica Nacional S.A. (EANSA), a state-owned company established in 2020, identified as negotiating directly with Iranian manufacturers and facilitating the sale of Mohajer-6 drones, combat platforms with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and attack capabilities. These systems, utilized by the Venezuelan Armed Forces, have been locally renamed ANSU, in a maneuver aimed at concealing their Iranian origin.
Leading EANSA is José Jesús Urdaneta González, who has also been sanctioned by OFAC. According to the Treasury, Urdaneta coordinated directly with members of the armed forces of Iran and Venezuela for drone production in the country, acting as a key operator in the binational military machinery. Under his management, EANSA even participated in the assembly of the ANSU-100, an armed variant capable of launching Iranian Qaem guided bombs, significantly enhancing the offensive capabilities of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
The U.S. offensive is not limited to Caracas. OFAC also sanctioned Mostafa Rostami Sani, Reza Zarepour Taraghi, Bahram Rezaei, Erfan Qaysari, and Mehdi Ghaffari, along with several Iranian companies—among them Pardisan Rezvan Shargh, Fanavari Electro Moj Mobin, and Kavoshgaran Asman Moj Ghadir—for their role in the acquisition of strategic chemicals used in ballistic missile programs, including key components such as sodium perchlorate, nitrocellulose, and industrial acids used in rocket propulsion.
These networks are linked to Parchin Chemical Industries and the Rayan Fan Group, organizations associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), labeled by Washington as one of the primary threats to regional stability. The Treasury emphasizes that Iranian drone and missile programs pose a direct threat to U.S. personnel and allies in the Middle East, destabilizing trade routes in the Red Sea and now projecting that risk toward the Western Hemisphere.
The action is backed by key executive orders and the National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, which directs cutting off the Iranian military’s access to the international financial system and stopping any armed expansion attempts through third countries. The message is clear: Venezuela is no longer seen as a passive partner but as an active platform for Iranian military projection in the Americas.
With these sanctions, all assets and properties of the designated individuals are blocked within U.S. jurisdiction, and any foreign financial institution facilitating transactions with these networks faces severe secondary sanctions. Washington makes it clear that the trade of drones and arms between Iran and Venezuela will not be tolerated and that it will use all available tools to dismantle this alliance.
The Iran–Venezuela cooperation has crossed a critical line and established a real military infrastructure, with combat drones, missiles, and local assembly. For the U.S., the Tehran–Caracas axis is solidifying as a direct threat to national and regional security.