FBI hunts for suspected Iranian assassin targeting Trump-era officials

The U.S. government is intensifying a manhunt for an Iranian intelligence operative whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation believes has been plotting to assassinate current and former American officials, including one-time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The FBI’s Miami field office on Friday issued a public alert seeking information on Majid Dastjani Farahani, a suspected member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, whom the Bureau alleged has been recruiting “individuals for operations in the U.S., to include lethal targeting of current/former USG officials.”

It’s unclear why the FBI issued its warning in Florida. But the U.S. government warned in a Most Wanted notice used Friday that Farahani speaks Spanish and frequently moves between Iran and Venezuela. The U.S.’s Department of Justice convicted an alleged Iranian operative in 2011 of working with Mexican drug cartels to attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, while he dined at a Georgetown restaurant. In January, the DoJ indicted an Iranian gang leader for allegedly working with members of the Hells Angels to kill Iranian dissidents living in Maryland.