Iranian national and wife federally indicted after wife threatens to shoot ICE officers in Tempe as a result of an ICE Arizona investigation

PHOENIX, Ariz. — A federal grand jury returned an indictment June 24 against Iranian national, Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand, 40, of Tempe, Arizona for alien in possession of a firearm, and against his wife, Linet Vartaniann, 37, a U.S. citizen from Tempe, Arizona, for threatening to assault a federal officer. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI are conducting the investigation in this case.

Documents filed in the case allege that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers went to Eidivand and Vartaniann’s Tempe residence on Saturday, June 21, to administratively arrest Eidivand for failing to comply with a 2013 removal order. Eidivand had challenged the removal order on several occasions, but the Board of Immigration Appeals denied those motions repeatedly. Despite the court order to return to his home country, Eidivand remained in the U.S. over a decade.

When ICE ERO officers arrived at the couple’s residence, they announced themselves and were answered by Vartaniann, who refused to open the door and told the officers to return with a warrant. Shortly thereafter, Tempe Police officers arrived on the scene and told ICE ERO that Vartaniann had called the police and threatened to shoot the federal officers. She claimed that she had a loaded gun and that she would shoot anyone who tried to come inside the house. She also threatened to go outside and shoot ICE officers in the head. When the police dispatcher spoke with Eidivand, he confirmed that there were guns in the home.

The following day, June 22, special agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations and officers from ICE ERO executed a federal search warrant on the residence. Inside the home, agents found a loaded firearm on the kitchen counter and a second loaded firearm on a nightstand. Both Vartaniann and Eidivand were arrested at the scene and taken into custody without further incident.

A conviction for alien in possession of a firearm carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both. A conviction for threatening to assault a federal officer carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

An indictment is simply a method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Addison Owen, District of Arizona, Phoenix, is handling the prosecution.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.gov)