Israel pulled off the most brazen intel heist in modern history

Israel's spy agency, Mossad, stole a huge trove of documents from Iran in early 2018, in one of its most brazen missions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the mission in a speech accusing Iran of "brazenly lying" about its nuclear capabilities. Netanyahu unveiled a collection of documents, which he said were stolen directly from Tehran facilities in "a great intelligence achievement."

Among the stolen intel were 110,000 documents, videos, and photographs that Netanyahu claimed showed Iran lied about its nuclear ambitions and deceived powers involved in the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

Netanyahu said that stash was made up of 55,000 pages of documents and another 55,000 files stored on 183 CDs. He said the haul collectively weighed half a ton.

Netanyahu didn't confirm how Mossad, known for its stealthy missions, obtained the material, but did say they had been stored in "a dilapidated warehouse."

"Few Iranians knew where it was — very few," Netanyahu said.

And now more details on the Iran mission have since emerged. A senior Israeli official told The New York Times that Mossad first discovered the unnamed warehouse in Tehran in February 2016, and began its surveillance from there.

The official also claimed that Mossad agents broke into the building one night in January 2018, took the 110,000 documents, and returned them to Israel that same night.

Little else is known, although Israel's announcement of the raid is likely part of its psychological warfare against Iran.

Iranian media has remained quiet on the raid, likely embarrassed that the spy agency stole an incredible number of documents under the cover of night.

But the value of the stolen documents that have so far been made public is up for debate.

While the White House said Netanyahu's presentation provided "new and compelling details" about Iran's past behaviours, some experts disagreed.

"Everything he said was already known to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and published," Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear-policy expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, tweeted.

"There is literally nothing new here and nothing that changes the wisdom of the JCPOA."

JCPOA stands for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and is the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal.

This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.