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The Iranian regime has created several "killer squads" with the aim of eliminating US President Donald Trump over at least the past five years, according to an extensive report published by the New York Post.
"They are killers, like the mafia. They have a list of people they want to see dead and they have sent many of their spies to organize the assassinations," Yigal Carmon, a retired colonel in the Israel Defense Forces and an expert on terrorism issues, told the newspaper.
According to the report, two assassination plots during 2024 were discovered and thwarted by authorities, showing how far the Iranian regime was willing to go to kill Trump before Washington killed the Iranian supreme leader on February 28.
Recruiting a "killer squad"
In one case, a spy received orders from Iranian authorities to recruit a team of assassins and devise a plan to assassinate Trump while he was still on the campaign trail.
According to court documents, spy Farhad Shakeri received orders from his Iranian contacts to prepare the assassination plan on October 7, 2024.
Shakeri had told an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official that the operation would cost a “very large amount of money.” The official replied that “money is not a problem,” adding that significant sums had already been spent on previous attempts to assassinate Trump.
The documents show that Shakeri had realized that the IRGC had already invested large sums of money in the assassination and was willing to continue financing the plan until its realization.
He was also told that he had only seven days to carry out the plan. According to communications with the FBI, if he failed to carry it out, the operation would be postponed until after the 2024 election, as it was assumed that Trump might lose it and then it would be easier to organize the assassination.
Shakeri communicated with the FBI from Tehran, where he was staying at the time. Although he was born in Afghanistan, he had grown up in the US and served 14 years in prison for various crimes before being deported. During this time, he had developed criminal connections that he later used to recruit hitmen.
He recruited two New Yorkers, Carlisle “Pop” Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, who were initially promised $100,000 to kill an anti-Iranian activist. They were arrested before they could carry out the plan.
Both were found guilty of contract killing. Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison in January, while Loadholt is expected to be sentenced next month. Shakeri was charged in absentia by the FBI, having remained in Iran.
Elimination of the "organizer"
This week, according to American and Israeli authorities, the person considered the main organizer of the plans to assassinate Trump in Tehran has been eliminated.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the death of Farhad Shakeri after the attacks in Tehran. According to estimates, it is either Farhad Shakeri or his superior Rahman Mokadam, the head of a special IRGC unit tasked with organizing the assassination of Trump.
In January, a month before the American-Israeli attacks, Iran had threatened Trump by sharing a photo of an assassination attempt on him at a rally in Pennsylvania in 2024, accompanied by the message: "This time it will not fail."
American investigators had told Trump several months after the attempt that an Iranian role could not be ruled out, stressing that several "killer squads" could have planned his elimination.
Iran has targeted Trump since 2020, when the US military killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad on the orders of the US president.
Another failed plan
Another known assassination plot was organized by a Pakistani national, who was promised up to $1 million if the assassination was successful.
Asif Merchant traveled to the U.S. posing as a clothing merchant to recruit a team of assassins. He was convicted on March 6 in a Brooklyn court of terrorism and contract killing, according to federal court documents.
Merchant told the court that the plan involved organizing a fake protest, recruiting a group of assassins, and stealing documents. However, the people he recruited turned out to be undercover FBI agents.
He claimed he was forced to participate in the plan by IRGC officials, who he said had threatened his family in Iran.
Biden and Haley also targeted
According to Merchant, the person running it from Tehran had mentioned Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as targets.
In April 2024, he traveled from Iran to Houston and then to New York, where he met with a source cooperating with federal investigators. During the meeting, he explained the plan using codes related to his fake clothing business.
According to court documents, the term “T-shirt” meant organizing a protest, “shirt” meant theft, while “fleece jacket” referred to the final act – murder. The expression “jean jacket” was used for transferring money.
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