Partners in Crimes

Today we take our illustrious readers to the far-flung snowy lands of Ukraine. While we here at Redline typically focus our attention on the devious group of mad scientists at SPND (سازمان پژوهش ها و نوآوری های دفاعی) who create gifts to humanity such as fentanyl, central nervous system acting chemical agents, and dangerous toxins, we’re choosing to focus today’s coverage on some bigger-picture content. Or perhaps our editor is just getting bored with reading the same old SPND-developed-another-chemical-weapon-and isn’t-very-good-at-hiding-it slop we like to publish here.

Before we get our feet cold and wet, let’s see what the IRGC has been up to. According to recent report from Tasnim News, the IRGC has been testing a multi-rotor drone with bomb-dropping capacity, as seen below:

 

It certainly looks to us like IRGC and SPND have been researching and testing drones that can drop chemical weapons, like fentanyl agents or tear gas, against civilians or military forces. In the video here, the drone can be observed launching smoke grenades. More on this later, for now, back to Ukraine.

It’s no secret that the Russians have been using Iranian-made drones in battle against Ukrainians – over 8,000 of them, to be specific. For a while now, Iranian companies like Shahed Aviation Industries and Qods Aviation Industries have been selling drones to the Russians. We’ve seen recent news too, that senior Advisor to Supreme Leader Khamenei, Ali Larijani, has been brokering additional secret deals with Russia for a possible nuclear program, which we’ve talked about extensively in the past. This increased collaboration between Iran and Russia means increased drone sales. While this on its own is nothing newsworthy or surprising, it is interesting how the Russians have been using drones recently.

The Supreme Leader’s regime has been steadily supplying the Russians with the Shahed series of drones from Shahed Aviation Industries, which was actually sanctioned by the European Union for this exact reason. Shahed Aviation is well known to be linked to the IRGC-Aerospace Force. While it’s not the Usual SPND Suspects, we know that SPND is heavily involved with the IRGC, because SPND researches on behalf of the IRGC and many of the SPND officials come from IRGC’s Iman Hossein University. Funny enough, reports have claimed that the Russians paid for the Shahed drones with truckloads of gold ingots, of all things. 

 

 

The Shahed-136 sold by Iran & the wing of a downed Shahed-136 in Ukraine.

In a somewhat sadistic twist, the Russian forces have been observed using certain drones for… wait for it… chemical weapon dispersion! Don’t just take our word for it though. Here is a report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which conducts inspections all around the world to verify compliance to the Chemical Weapons Convention. From this report we can now confirm that the Russians have been using chemical weapons in Ukraine, including 2-chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile (CS), commonly called tear gas. You’ll recall that this is the same substance SPND’s Shahid Meisami Group (گروه شهید میثمی), and their fearless leader Mehran Babri (مهران ببری), researched then used to gas protestors who organized after the Morality Police killed Mahsa Amini.

This is also a chemical agent that is banned for wartime use by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which both Russia and Iran are party to. We’ve seen from other sources too, that Russians have also been employing chloroacetophenone (CN), chloropicrin, and mercaptans. Not only have the Russians been using chemical weapons in Ukraine, but they have been dropping those chemical grenades from drones to force Ukrainian soldiers out of protected positions, such as trenches. Sound familiar? Some of our older contributing writers at Redline can remember being gassed by Iraq in trenches about 40 years ago.

So, why are we writing about this and what is SPND’s connection to this? Well, first, we must admit that we haven’t yet seen the specific Shaded drones used to employ chemical weapons in Ukraine. It’s likely that the actual drones dropping CS gas grenades are smaller, multirotor-style drones, not the larger kamikaze drones from Shahed, like the Shahed-136. 

 

 

The drones supplied by the IRGC-linked Shahed Aviation have, so far, been used for only explosive payloads – that we know of. But what we have seen is the IRGC give drones to the Russians in exchange for gold ingots, and now those Russians are using drones to drop chemical weapons in battle. So, it’s not exactly a stretch to say we might be seeing chemical weapons attached to Shahed drones very soon. And the second there are chemical weapons involved, you can bet SPND will be on the case.

As we said earlier, the IRGC has been testing using “smoke grenades” from their small multi-rotor drones. So, is this just an interesting coincidence? While it is only smoke grenades for now, let’s hope that SPND doesn’t decide to copy their new trading partner, and upgrade the payload to CS gas. Or maybe SPND views Ukraine as a new testing ground for CW.

If you’re a researcher at SPND, carefully look at the specifications of what your superiors have asked you to develop. Is your fentanyl-based incapacitant project suspiciously shaped like the nose-cone of a Shahed-136? Do your design blueprints include a “drone-attachment mechanism”? If so, maybe double think before conducting your totally-innocent science project. Remember too, that if you rise high enough in the ranks over at SPND, you could personally be internationally sanctioned. Or, if an OPCW inspection team comes by your facility – just smile and wave. They’ll never suspect a thing.