The FBI on Wednesday shared a wanted poster for Chinese national Baoxia “Emily” Liu, adding that the State Department is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information on her and others accused of smuggling U.S. drone weapons to Iran. 

Liu and three other fellow Chinese nationals were charged by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department in January 2024 in an alleged years-long conspiracy in which they unlawfully exported and smuggled U.S. export-controlled items through China and Hong Kong to entities affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), which supervises production of Tehran’s missiles, weapons, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

Her co-defendants are Li Yongxin, also known as “Emma Lee;” Yung Yiu Wa, also known as “Stephen Yung;” and Zhong Yanlai, also known as Sydney Chung. 

The State Department said Liu and her three co-defendants “allegedly misrepresented the end users of dual-use U.S.-origin electronic components, leading U.S. companies to export goods to PRC-based front companies under the guise that the ultimate destination of these products was China rather than Iran.” 

A veiled Iranian woman holds up a sign featuring portraits of Lebanon’s Hezbollah late leaders, Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddin, during a rally at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in downtown Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 23, 2025.  (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“As a result, a vast amount of dual-use U.S.-origin products with military capabilities have been exported from the United States to IRGC-linked companies Shiraz Electronics Industries (SEI), Rayan Roshd Afzar, and their affiliates, in violation of U.S. sanctions and export control laws and regulations,” the department said. 

The IRGC and MODAFL “have utilized the U.S.-controlled technology to develop and manufacture arms and weapons systems, including UAVs, that are sold to governments and groups in allied countries such as Russia, Sudan, and Yemen,” it added.