(StraightNews.org) – Justice Department prosecutors have charged two Canadians and an Iranian with plotting to murder two unnamed Iranian dissidents living in Maryland. Naji Sharifi Zindashti, who lives in Iran, allegedly contacted Canadian Damion Patrick John Ryan, offering him a money-making opportunity. Ryan is a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club member and reached out to fellow member Adam Richard Pearson, a Canadian living in Minnesota.
Messages between the two alleged conspirators described shooting the targets in the head. One such message stated, “We gotta erase his head from his torso.” Ryan and Pearson, together with a third unnamed suspect, allegedly agreed to murder the two dissidents in exchange for $350,000 plus an extra $20,000 for expenses.
Pearson and Ryan, who are facing an indictment for conspiracy and illegal firearm possession in the United States, are currently imprisoned in Canada on unrelated charges. Pearson was jailed for eight years in 2023 on manslaughter charges following the death of an Alberta man. Zindashti remains at large in Iran.
In a press release, Matt Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, stated that the Department would vigorously pursue anyone attempting to attack political dissidents in the United States.
Both the US and the UK have placed sanctions on Mr. Zindashti, which prevent him from conducting business or engaging in any financial transactions with residents of either country. Furthermore, the British government says it has issued 15 warnings over the past two years to Iranians in the UK, warning them they may be targets of Iran’s feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
Zindashti has a long record of arrests and is believed to lead an international criminal network involved in drug smuggling and political assassination. Turkish authorities think he was responsible for the 2020 kidnapping of Swedish-Iranian Habib Chaab, who was abducted in Turkey and later executed in Iran.
Known as “the Big Guy,” Zindashti is thought to be connected to Iran’s secret services and conduct his criminal network on behalf of the Islamic regime.
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