• US court sentences Pahlawan after conviction on five counts.
• Muhammad Pahlawan arrested by US security forces.
• Pahlawan’s crew say they were not aware of real plot.

LONDON: A weapons smuggler from Pakistan who used a fishing boat to ship ballistic missile parts from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen has been sentenced to 40 years in a US prison on five counts.

Muhammad Pahlawan was detained during a US military operation in the Arabian Sea in January 2024. Two US Navy Seals drowned in that operation, according to the US authorities.

Pahlawan’s crew, who were working as fishermen, according to the US case, testified they had been duped into taking part and were not aware of the real plot. At that time, Houthis had launched missile and drone attacks on Israel, claiming they were acting in support of Gazans.

The components found on Pahlawan’s boat were “some of the most sophisticated weapon systems that Iran proliferates to other terrorist groups”, US federal prosecutors said after his trial.

The 49-year-old was sentenced after being convicted on five counts, including terrorism offences and transporting weapons of mass destruction. He has been convicted on five counts, making a total of 480 months or 40 years.

The eight crew members who testified in court said they had no idea what was inside the large packages on board the boat, named the Yunus.

One crew member said that when he questioned Pahlawan about it, he was told to mind his own business.

Pahlawan referred to himself as a “walking dead person” in text message exchanges with his wife in Pakistan, sent in the days before the January 2024 voyage, which would get him arrested.

“Just pray that [we] come back safely,” said the message, used as evidence in court.

“Why do you talk like this, ‘may or may not come back’,” she asked him.

Pahlawan told her: “Such is the nature of the job, my dear, such is the nature of the job.”

His final words to her before sailing were: “Keep me in your prayers. May God take me there safely and bring me back safely, alright. Pray.”

The prosecution told the court that Pahlawan was paid 1,400 million rials (£25,200; $33,274), “part of a larger operation” funded and co-ordinated by two Iranian brothers, Yunus and Shahab Mir’kazei. 

The US alleges the Mir’kazei brothers are affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Pahlawan made two successful smuggling voyages before he was caught – one in October 2023, and a second two months later.

The dozen men he recruited to join him were all from Pakistan and had travelled across the border into Iran looking for work.

Before setting off on the December trip, the US court heard, the crew were tasked with loading large packages onto the boat in Chabahar on Iran’s south coast.

Then, after five or six days at sea, when they were close to the coast of Somalia, the crew described another boat pulling up next to them at night and them having to hand over the cargo.

Crew member Mehandi Hassan told the court there were about five men on the other boat, who spoke in a language he didn’t recognise.

Their next voyage, the following month, was expected to follow the same route. As before, it began in the small port of Konarak before sailing to Chabahar, where the crew were made to load heavy boxes on board.

The packages, the US Navy would later discover, contained Iranian-made ballistic missile parts, anti-ship cruise missile components and a warhead.

He worked with the brothers to prepare the boat for these smuggling voyages, received specific coordinates from them for the ship-to-ship transfers, and received multiple payments from them for his role in the smuggling operation.

US federal prosecutors said the components found on Pahlawan’s boat were “some of the most sophisticated weapon systems that Iran proliferates to other terrorist groups”.

On 5 June this year, Pahlawan was found guilty of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists; providing material support to the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guard Corps’ weapons of mass destruction programme; conspiring to and transporting explosive devices to the Houthis, knowing these explosives would be used to cause harm; and threatening his crew.

“Pahlawan was not only a seasoned smuggler,” prosecutors said, “he knew what he was smuggling and its intended use.”

In a final plea to the court for leniency, Pahlawan’s lawyer wrote that life for Pahlawan’s wife had long been estranged from her family because of her marriage to him, and that since his arrest, her and her child’s lives had become “extremely difficult and harsh”.

“Since the jury verdict, Mr Pahlawan’s singular focus in their telephone conversations is the well-being of his family,” his attorney said. “He does not talk about himself or his fate. He cries with worry over what will become of his wife and child.”

The court ruled that his high sentence was “appropriate due to the nature and circumstances of the offence and the history and characteristics of the defendant”.

He was sentenced at the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Sam Rivers, the bass player for the metal band Limp Bizkit, has died, the band said on social media. He was 48.

The band said Rivers died on Saturday but did not disclose where he died or the circumstances. They described him as “pure magic” and “the soul in the sound.”

“From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced. His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous,” the band wrote in an Instagram post announcing his death. “We shared so many moments — wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones — and every one of them meant more because Sam was there.”

The band added: He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of human. A true legend of legends. And his spirit will live forever in every groove, every stage, every memory.”

Fred Durst, the band’s frontman and lead vocalist, posted a video Sunday morning that recounted how they met at a club in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, and went on to musical stardom and performances around the globe. Durst said he has shed “gallons and gallons of tears since yesterday.”

“He really did have an impact on the world and his music and his gift is the one that’s going to keep on giving,” Durst said. “I just love him so much.”

Rivers had spoken of heavy drinking that had caused liver disease. He left the band in 2015 and received a liver transplant before reuniting with Limp Bizkit three years later.

Limp Bizkit has scheduled a tour of Central and South America to begin in Mexico City in late November.

Durst said he and Rivers shared a love of grunge music, naming the bands Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots.

“He had this kind of ability to pull this beautiful sadness out of the bass that I’d never heard,” Durst said, calling Rivers “so talented I can’t explain.”

Limp Bizkit, with roots in Jacksonville, Florida, emerged in the late 1990s with a sound that melds alternative rock, heavy metal and rap.

Their off-the-wall sense of humor is reflected in the titles of their mega-selling 2000 album, “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water,” and a single released last month, “Making Love to Morgan Wallen.”

Season three of Euphoria is arguably HBO’s most-awaited series. As it’s in the making, one of its stars, Jacob Elordi, who plays Nate Jacob, weighs in on it.

Appearing on the Academy Museum Gala red carpet, he hypes up the forthcoming season, saying, “It was incredible, man,” adding, “It was incredibly liberating. I got to play something so sort of far out from what I’ve done before.”

He said that series creator Sam Levinson “constructed something that’s incredibly clever and cinematic. I think people are really going to like it.”

Amid teasing, Jacob adds that he has no idea about the overall story of season three.

“Everybody shoots at different storylines,” he reveals. “I don’t know what anyone else is doing. I had a really singular storyline.” 

The 28-year-old continues, “You don’t know what the other story lines are. It’s like FBI files. So it’s great because I’ll get to consume the show the same way that everybody else does as a fan, which I haven’t been able to do before. I’m really excited.”

Along with Jacob, Euphoria stars Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Eric Dane, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, Maude Apatow, Martha Kelly, Chloe Cherry, Dominic Fike, Colman Domingo and Kika King.

Season three is expected to drop in the spring of 2026.