Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday, October 4, shot and killed Azim Ahmadi, a young man who had no choice but work as a porter in order to make ends meet.

Eyewitnesses say Azimi told the IRGC, “Please don’t shoot us… We have not done anything wrong here…We’re trying make ends meet for our families.” They responded by saying: “We came here to kill you.”

He was saying, “My children and my wife are waiting for me,” when IRGC officers fatally shot him from behind, witnesses say.

A video showing the dead body of Azim Ahmadi went viral on Persian social media, increasing the public’s anger regarding the arbitrary killing of poor porters.

Authorities take harsh measures against porters under the pretext of smuggling while the widespread aspect of smuggled goods and currency in Iran confirms this reality that the “small smugglers,” who are constantly arrested and even killed by state police, are actually a very small piece of a very large puzzle.

The state-run Ebtekar daily posted an article in December 2016, unveiling startling remarks made by regime officials over the systematic nature smuggling of goods, and how this phenomenon has become an established method for the Iranian regime.

“Small ships, load-carriers and smugglers are only a small percentage of the country’s smuggling dilemma. A large portion of smuggled goods entering the country are far more intense than these simple individuals… confronting such smugglers is only answering to a small percentage of the problem,” the piece reads.

“Considering the statistics provided by official organs, smuggled imports value at $15 billion. Our official imports are around $50 billion, and again based on the numbers of manufactured goods imported into the country, including vehicles, adds up to around $5 billion. Therefore, the smugglers are importing consumable goods. This means the value of goods smuggled into the country is three times that of official trade,” the article writes citing Majid-reza Hariri, deputy of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce.

“When we $25 billion worth of smuggled goods in the country, it means that this phenomenon is far beyond a bunch of load-carriers and small ship owners, and we are faced with a large mafia being behind all this,” the article continued, citing Nosser Mousavi Laregani, a member of the Iranian parliament’s economic commission.