Iran hires Hells Angel to kidnap, kill exiled critics: report

The Islamic Republic of Iran has hired Hells Angels and other criminal groups to kidnap and murder its critics in countries such as the United States (US), Germany and the United Kingdom (UK).

This is evident from a report published by The Washington Post on Thursday, September 12, based on interviews with senior officials, criminal records and security service documents from more than a dozen countries.

The Russian organization “Thieves in Law,” a heroin distribution network led by an Iranian drug trafficker, and violent organizations from Scandinavia to South America are among those reportedly recruited by Iran.

The Iranian regime in the West is targeting exiles, including a former soldier in Maryland, an Iranian-American journalist in Brooklyn, a women’s rights activist in Switzerland, LGBTQ+ activists in Germany and a dissident in London.

Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed four times in Wimbledon, London, after years of threats and intimidation, and was temporarily placed in safe houses.

MI5 and the Metropolitan Police have identified 88 violent plots linked to Iran over the past five years, including 16 assassination and kidnapping attempts, 14 of which involved criminal groups. The Post reported.

In August of this year, the US Department of Justice announced charges against Pakistani man Asif Merchant in connection with an Iranian plot to assassinate a politician or a US government official.

Masih Alinejad, a journalist from the US-Iran region, has been targeted in three plots. Authorities have foiled one of them, involving Khalid Mehdiyev, a member of Thieves in Law.

Tehran is said to have outsourced killings and kidnappings to Iranian drug trafficker Naji Sharifi Zindashti, who has been described as a “Pablo Escobar-like drug trafficker.”

Iran’s collaboration with criminal gangs, rather than using covert operatives, is reported to represent a worrying shift in governance tactics that the US and other Western security experts consider one of the world’s most dangerous forms of “transnational repression.”

Naji Sharifi Zindashti is accused of committing international murders.