WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- U.S. officials on Tuesday were investigating reports a former FBI agent is missing in Iran.
The former federal agent was last known to be on Kish Island, off Iran's southern coast, and was believed to be working for an author and producer trying to set up an interview, senior U.S. officials told CNN.
The man has not been in touch with his family or employer in more than a week, the State Department said.
The former agent retired from the FBI about 10 years ago. He followed organized crime in the United States and was not involved in intelligence matters, said FBI spokesman Paul Bresson.
U.S. officials were in the process of sending a "welfare and whereabouts inquiry" to Iran through the Swiss government, a U.S. State Department official said. The United States had no reason to believe the man was being held by Iran, CNN reported.
"We don't see any linkage whatsoever between this case and any other ongoing cases that may have been in the news recently," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told CNN in an apparent reference to 15 British Navy sailors and Royal Marines being held in Iran.
Kish Island is part of a free-trade zone, and typically visas are not required to visit it.
