A Naval Special Warfare Operator stamps a trident onto a wooden plaque during a memorial service for Chief Petty Officer Christopher Chambers and Petty Officer 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram at Silver Strand Training Complex in Coronado, Calif., April 18, 2024. (Chelsea D. Meiller/U.S. Navy)
A Pakistani man will spend four decades in prison for his role in an arms smuggling scheme that turned deadly when two Navy SEALs drowned during a nighttime raid on the boat he was captaining.
Muhammad Pahlawan received a 40-year sentence Thursday from a federal judge in Virginia on various charges related to transportation of Iranian weapons to Houthi militants in Yemen, according to court records.
In January 2024, U.S. Navy forces intercepted the dhow off the coast of Somalia. While trying to board, Chief Petty Officer Christopher Chambers lost his grip and fell into the sea. Petty Officer 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram jumped into the water to save him but the two were weighed down by equipment and drowned.
Pahlawan was given a 20-year sentence for providing material support or resources to a weapons of mass destruction program of a foreign terrorist power. He also was sentenced to another 20 years on each of three other charges and received 15 years for conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists, court records show. Those four charges will run concurrently, meaning Pahlawan will serve no more than 40 years total, according to sentencing documents.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for a statement.
Muhammad Pahlawan was the captain of this dhow shown in an undated photo released by U.S. Central Command on Jan. 16, 2024. He was sentenced Oct. 16, 2025, to 20 years in prison on a spate of weapons smuggling charges. The vessel was raided by U.S. Navy forces off the coast of Somalia on Jan. 11, 2024. (U.S. Central Command)
Weapons components seized by the U.S. Navy during a Jan. 11, 2024, raid off the coast of Somalia are displayed in this undated photo released by U.S. Central Command on Jan. 16, 2024. The captain of the dhow transporting the Iranian-made weapons to Yemen was sentenced on smuggling charges Oct. 16, 2025. (U.S. Central Command)
During the raid, Pahlawan instructed his crew not to stop the vessel and to burn it down. He also told them to lie about the ship’s cargo to the boarding team and falsely identify him as a mechanic, according to court records.
The interdiction team subsequently discovered ballistic missile and anti-ship cruise missile parts and a warhead, weapons used by Houthi militants in targeting commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023.
Pahlawan worked with two Iranian brothers to smuggle materials from Iran to the Houthis, the Justice Department previously said.
The operation included smuggling voyages from about August 2023 to January 2024, during which cargo was transported from Iran to the coast of Somalia and transferred to another vessel.
Pahlawan was sent coordinates by the brothers for the ship-to-ship transfers “and received multiple payments from them for his role in the smuggling operation,” prosecutors said.
He was convicted of six federal charges in June. The sentencing report included notes from a telephone conversation with Pahlawan’s wife, who characterized him as a family man focused on providing for her and the couple’s child.
Ingram in May was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his “bravery and selflessness,” and both he and Chambers received posthumous promotions. An investigation released in October 2024 concluded that the deaths of Ingram and Chambers were preventable.
It cited deficiencies in training, policies, tactics and procedures as well as conflicting guidance on when and how to use emergency flotation devices and extra buoyancy material that could have kept them alive, The Associated Press reported at the time.
