SPND is still hooked on fentanyl

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Like your dad’s favourite dead rockstars and the best actor in The Wire, it seems that the Iranian government just can’t quit its addiction to fentanyl. Indeed, we’ve just stumbled across a piece of information indicating that the weird relationship between Iran’s military‑industrial complex and the world of illicit drug production could be ramping up even further.

Remember Iranian state-owned fentanyl manufacturer Tofigh Daru Research and Engineering Company, which we wrote about in a previous post? In that post, we aired our suspicions that Tofigh Daru is mass-producing fentanyl for the purposes of supplying the global black market for the drug.

It turns out that in December 2023, Tofigh Daru was paid an official visit by an Iranian government official named Javad Mashayekh (جواد مشایخ).

To those with a little bit of knowledge about the murky world of Iranian covert operations, Mashayekh’s presence at Tofigh Daru is what a poker player might call a Big Fucking Tell. Mashayekh, you see, is a long-time member of the arm of Iranian intelligence that’s traditionally been responsible for “technology transfer” – in practice, stealing advanced military, nuclear and missile-related technology from abroad. We suspect that given budgetary pressures in Iran, this very same arm is now increasingly responsible for covertly selling Iranian-made illicit products like fentanyl into the global black market. And Javad Mashayekh is the perfect man to lead such a charge.

Of course, you’ll not be surprised that Mashayekh is also a buddy of SPND. He was a consultant for SPND front company Pulse Niru, and also conducted research with AMAD man Seyed Borji (سعید برجی). We’re confident that Mashayekh continues to have a foot in the door at SPND headquarters at Sanaye Street.

Anyway, here’s Mashayekh checking out the meth lab chemical production infrastructure at Tofigh Daru:



We’ll take Mashayekh’s visit as further evidence supporting our hypothesis that Iran’s shadowy state security services (and SPND) are deeply involved in the fentanyl game – and looking to profit from it on a grand scale.

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