Picture this: Iranian intelligence agents slash Heroin Kingpins- recruiting Canadian Hell's Angels members to carry out assassinations on American soil. Sounds like something out of a Hollywood thriller, right? Well, it's not fiction – it's the terrifying reality of how Iran has transformed international espionage by outsourcing murder to the criminal underworld.
The day before President-elect Trump was almost killed while campaigning in Pennsylvania, a Pakistani man was arrested for attempting to mastermind several hit squads targeting political figures in the U.S. But that's just the tip of the iceberg in a story that involves heroin kingpins, Hell's Angels, and a web of international crime that reads like the most insane spy novel you've ever heard.
The Hell's Angels Connection
Let me tell you about Damion Patrick John Ryan – a Canadian Hell's Angels member who became an international assassin for hire. In 2021, an Iranian criminal mastermind named Naji Sharifi Zindashti recruited Ryan to kill Iranian dissidents who had fled to the United States.
Ryan's criminal history ranged from firearms trafficking to international drug dealing, with ties to criminal elements across Canada, the United States, and Greece. Working through encrypted messaging service SkyECC, Zindashti sent Ryan photos and locations of targets, coordinating payment details like he was ordering takeout.
The conversations were chilling. Ryan recruited another Hell's Angels affiliate, Adam Richard Pearson, to help carry out the murders. Pearson casually discussed logistics: "shooting is probably easiest thing for them," and promised to tell the hit team to "shoot [the victim] in the head a lot [to] make example" and "erase his head from his torso."
Between December 2020 and March 2021, this network planned to murder two residents of Maryland – Iranian defectors who had fled to America for safety. Zindashti and Ryan agreed on $350,000 for the job, plus $20,000 for expenses. Ryan boasted: "We have a 4 man team ready."
Fortunately, law enforcement intercepted these communications and disrupted the plot. But this case revealed something terrifying: Iran wasn't just using traditional spies anymore. They were hiring the most violent criminal organizations in the world.
The Trump Assassination Plot
Now let's talk about the main event – the plot to kill Donald Trump. This story begins with the death of Qasem Soleimani, Iran's top general who was killed in a U.S. airstrike ordered by Trump at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.
Soleimani headed Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the military branch involved in supporting terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Iran's supreme leader once called him a "living martyr of the revolution." When Trump had him eliminated, Iran wanted revenge.
Enter Farhad Shakeri, a 51-year-old Afghan-born man with a fascinating backstory. Shakeri immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager, probably on political asylum when Afghans were fighting the Soviets. But instead of the American dream, he chose crime, spending 14 years in New York state prison for armed robbery.
Here's where it gets interesting: while in Woodbourne Correctional Facility from 1994 to 2008, Shakeri met other inmates involved in similar activities. The feds believe he was recruited by Iranian intelligence through these prison connections. After his release and deportation to Afghanistan, he moved to Iran and joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
According to court documents, Iranian officials asked Shakeri in September to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump. On recorded wiretap calls, Shakeri revealed that IRGC officials told him on October 7th that he had seven days to formulate an assassination plan.
The timeline is crucial: if Shakeri couldn't develop a plan within seven days, the IRGC would wait until after the presidential election, believing Trump would lose. They were wrong about that election prediction, and now we have to wonder what they're planning.
The International Criminal Network
Shakeri wasn't working alone. He relied on a network of criminal associates he met during his time in New York's prison system to supply Iranian officials with operatives in the U.S. He would pay these criminals to monitor victims that Iranian officials sought to assassinate, running the entire operation from Tehran.
