Local News in Brief : $3.2 Million in Iranian Heroin Seized; Northridge Man Held

An Iranian national living in Northridge has been arrested in Las Vegas and $3.2 million of Persian heroin was seized as part of a four-month undercover investigation into an international drug network, the FBI said Tuesday.

Masoud Kiani, 38, was arrested Saturday and named in a complaint filed Tuesday charging him with distribution of heroin.

“The suspect is part of a major international heroin distribution network,” the FBI said. Agents said the heroin, which originates in the town of Esfahan in west-central Iran, passes through West Germany, France and Britain before entering the United States.

“The heroin . . . is of high quality and has only recently made inroads into the illegal heroin market in the United States,” the FBI said.

The Nevada Joint Drug Task Force, made up of the FBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department narcotics agents, arrested Kiani as he prepared to sell nearly two pounds of Persian heroin to an undercover agent for $106,000.

Authorities said it was the third drug transaction between Kiani and the undercover officer since the investigation started in November.

Kiani, held without bond over the holiday weekend, told authorities that he was a self-employed paint and auto body worker in Chatsworth.