Authorities: Hells Angels Were Hired to Kill Iranian Defector

Authorities from the US and UK say they foiled a plot involving two members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club who were hired to kill an Iranian defector and his female companion. Naji Sharifi Zindashti, 49, is accused of running an "assassination ring" that targets Iranian dissidents across the globe on behalf of Iran's government, and in this case is accused of hiring Damion Ryan of Canada to murder a defector living in Maryland, the Guardian and the BBC report.

Ryan, 43, then allegedly recruited the help of his associate, 29-year-old Adam Pearson; Zindashti allegedly agreed to pay the men a total of $350,000 plus another $20,000 for travel expenses. The plot was never carried out, however, and Pearson and Ryan are currently imprisoned on unrelated charges. Zindashti is believed to be in Iran. The men have now all been charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, plus firearms charges for Pearson, per an indictment released Monday.

Authorities say Zindashti first contacted Ryan on an encrypted messaging app in December 2020, and that Ryan and Pearson discussed a plan to shoot the unnamed target, with Pearson allegedly saying, "we gotta erase his head from his torso." The fee had been agreed upon by February 2021, but the murders never took place because authorities "disrupted" the plans, NBC News reports, citing an official statement. The US and UK are taking action against Zindashti's alleged operation, they say in a statement: "Zindashti's network has carried out numerous acts of transnational repression including assassinations and kidnappings across multiple jurisdictions in an attempt to silence the Iranian regime's perceived critics." (More Iran stories.)