The U.S. is joined by the United Kingdom in taking action against the network, which is led by Iranian narcotics trafficker Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti. The group operates at the behest of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and has carried out numerous acts of assassinations and kidnappings in a bid to silence Iran’s critics, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which has issued sanctions against the members who were indicted. “The Iranian regime’s continued efforts to target dissidents and activists demonstrate the regime’s deep insecurity and attempt to expand Iran’s domestic repression internationally,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said in a Treasury Department statement about the arrests. “The United States, alongside our international allies and partners, including the United Kingdom, will continue to combat the Iranian regime’s transnational repression and will utilize all available tools to stop this threat, especially on U.S. soil.” Iranian henchmen have stepped up their attacks against dissidents, journalists, activists, and former Iranian officials, Treasury officials said. In 2021, Zindashti’s network recruited two Canadian members of the Hells Angels Outlaw Motorcycle Group (Damion Patrick John Ryan and Adam Richard Pearson, who have now been indicted) to assassinate people in the U.S. who fled Iran. A Zindashti associate would send the bikers the location and photos of the targets, as well as coordinate payment details. A statement from the Department of Justice (DOJ) says Ryan and Pearson conspired with each other in a plot to murder two resident of the state of Maryland. One of the intended victims had defected from Iran. Ryan and Pearson used the encrypted messaging app “SkyECC” to recruit people who would travel to the U.S. to plan and carry out the murders. In one thread, the men communicated about “jobs,” “equipment,” and needing to “make some money.” Pearson wrote that “shooting is probably the easiest thing for them,” adding that at least one of the victims needed to be beheaded after he was killed. “To those in Iran who plot murders on U.S. soil and the criminal actors who work with them, let today’s charges send a clear message: the Department of Justice will pursue you as long as it takes – and wherever you are – and deliver justice,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in the statement. “Today’s charges show a pattern of Iranian groups trying to murder U.S. residents on U.S. soil,” Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division added. “Mr. Zindashti and his accomplices’ alleged plot is reprehensible, and the FBI will not tolerate such acts against U.S. residents, and we will continue to pursue these individuals until they are brought to the U.S. to face justice.” Federal officials have arrested multiple individuals in connection with an Iranian transnational assassination network that carries out murders on American soil.
