U.S. prosecutors allege that the government of Iran recruited two Canadian men associated with the Hells Angels to assassinate Iranian defectors in Maryland as part of an international scheme meant to silence dissidents abroad.
A federal indictment unsealed on Monday says that Naji Sharifi Zindashti, an Iranian drug trafficker operating under the orders of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, recruited Damion Patrick John Ryan, 43, a Canadian full-patch member of the Hells Angels, to carry out a hit on two Iranians in Maryland in December of 2020. Mr. Ryan in turn hired Adam Richard Pearson, 29, a Canadian Hells Angels affiliate then living illegally in Minnesota, to carry out the plot, prosecutors say.
