The Islamic Republic of Iran has been hiring the Hells Angels and other criminal groups rooted in Western nations to attack its critics in exile.
An explosive report from The Washington Post claims Tehran has recruited thugs to kidnap and kill Iranian dissidents in democratic countries including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Iran’s rulers have reportedly recruited the Russian “Thieves in Law” gang, an Iranian drug trafficking group and violent groups from Scandinavia to South America to carry out their orders.
A former Iranian military officer hiding in Maryland, an Iranian-American journalist in Brooklyn and a dissident in London are among the exiles the Iranian regime has its sights set on in the West.
Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati, a British citizen, was stabbed four times on the pavement outside his home on March 29 in Wimbledon, a London suburb. The attack came after years of threats and intimidation that led him to move into safe houses for a time.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been hiring the Hell’s Angels and other criminal groups to attack its critics in the West. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a meeting with the administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran
London’s Metropolitan Police believe Tehran hired criminals from Eastern Europe to carry out the attack.
Detectives said the attackers followed Zeraati for days and fled on a flight just hours after the ambush. Authorities believe the attackers may have wanted Zeraati to survive the stabbing to scare him and avoid an international scandal.
The Zeraati attackers have not been captured.
MI5 and the Metropolitan Police have tracked more than 16 plots from the Islamic Republic in the past two years, The Post reported.
According to the Washington Institute, there have been 88 assassinations, kidnappings and other violent plots linked to Iran in the past five years. At least 14 of them involved criminal groups.
In the United States, the Justice Department last month filed charges against a Pakistani man with ties to Iran who allegedly sought to hire a hitman to kill politicians, possibly including former President Donald Trump.
Former Trump officials Mike Pompeo and John Bolton have also been targeted by Tehran in plots to avenge the US killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard leader Qasem Soleimani.
Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati, a British citizen, was stabbed four times on the pavement outside his home on 29 March in Wimbledon, a London suburb. He appears on a “WANTED” poster published by the Republic of Iran.
German authorities say Tehran recruited a fugitive Hells Angels leader, Ramin Yektaparast, to organize and carry out terrorist attacks against synagogues.
In Brooklyn, authorities foiled a plot to assassinate Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad that involved Thieves in Law member Khalid Mehdiyev, who showed up at her door.
Alinejad has been the target of at least three plots, including one that involved kidnapping her in New York and taking her to Venezuela by boat.
“There are a lot of people in Eastern Europe and other places and it’s very easy for them to get a visa and come here to do the work,” he told The Post.
Tehran has also reportedly outsourced assassinations and kidnappings to Iranian drug lord Naji Sharifi Zindashti, described as a “Pablo Escobar-type drug lord.”
In Turkey, activist Habib Chaab, who lived in Sweden, was kidnapped in 2020 during a visit to Turkey. He was smuggled by Zindashti agents to Iran, where he was tortured and executed in 2023.
Zindashti is also accused of negotiating a $350,000 contract with two Hells Angels members in Canada to kill an Iranian defector and his wife, who were hiding under false identities in Maryland.
The defector has not been identified as a former IRGC officer who became a CIA informant.
Tehran has also reportedly outsourced assassinations and kidnappings to Iranian drug lord Naji Sharifi Zindashti, described as a “Pablo Escobar-type drug lord.”
Canadian gangster Damion Ryan, 43, of the Hells Angels, was hired to attack an Iranian dissident in Maryland.
The key man in the failed assassination attempt on the defector was identified as Damion Ryan, 43, who has a long criminal record in Canada. He is accused of recruiting Adam R. Pearson, 29, who was hiding in Minneapolis to avoid arrest on murder charges in Canada.
German authorities say Tehran recruited a fugitive Hells Angels leader, Ramin Yektaparast, to organize and carry out terrorist attacks against synagogues.
Amid the war in Gaza, Tehran has also been linked to plots against US and Israeli officials in France and Germany.
As The Post notes, other authoritarian regimes around the world have begun using Tehran’s strategy of recruiting criminals in the West.
A Sikh activist was killed in Canada last year and another was attacked in New York by criminals hired by Indian security services.
Meanwhile, Russia hired mobsters in Spain last year to kill a military pilot who had defected to Ukraine and relocated to the Mediterranean.
Iran denied the allegations when contacted by The Post.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the plan to engage in assassination or kidnapping operations, whether in the West or in any other country,” Tehran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement.
‘These fabrications are the work of the Zionist regime, the Albania-based terrorist sect Mujahedin-e Khalq and certain Western intelligence services, including those of the United States, to divert attention from the atrocities committed by the Israeli regime.’