The minister took to Twitter to announce the arrest of a suspect with the initials M. A. in the western province of Khuzestan.
Last Wednesday, Shariatmadari informed the public that the arrested suspect had confessed to the illicit import of 718 vehicles and had cooperated with officials in disclosing the names of his accomplices.
The roots of the inquiry can be traced back to the government's shutdown of the online auto imports registration website for seven months to revise auto import rules, Financial Tribune reported.
The website was reopened in the final days of 2017, and online car imports registration resumed. However, it has become a bone of contention that during the seven-month total shutdown, thousands of cars have illegally been registered online, entered the country and hit the roads.
President Hassan Rouhani earlier reported that a corrupt coordinated circle inside the Industries Ministry, in cahoots with a number of car importers and several computer specialists from the company charged with the maintenance of the registry website teamed up to bring an undisclosed number of vehicles into Iran without going through the proper channels.
Rouhani has ordered various state bodies to probe into the allegations of corruption that are rumored to run deep in the system.