Report: Iran employing Hells Angels and criminal gangs to attack critics in the US and abroad.

A report has unveiled that Iran is recruiting members of the Hells Angels biker gang and other criminal organizations to carry out attacks against and silence dissidents residing in Europe and on American soil as part of their efforts.

According to The Washington Post, high-level units within Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Ministry of Intelligence have targeted a former Iranian military officer living in Maryland, an Iranian-American activist and journalist based in New York City, and an exiled reporter in London.

"Matt Jukes, the head of counterterrorism policing in the UK, stated in a newspaper interview that they are not dealing with typical suspects. Instead, they are facing a hostile state actor who views the battlefield as borderless and considers individuals in London as legitimate targets, just as if they were in Iran."

Over the past five years, the Washington Institute has reported that Iran was linked to 88 violent plots, including assassination and abduction attempts. In the past two years, officials in the U.K. have tracked more than 16 plots alone.

An Iran-based heroin trafficking kingpin, Naji Sharifi Zindashti, entered into a $350,000 contract with two Hells Angels biker gang members in Canada to assassinate an Iranian defector and his wife, who were living under different identities in Maryland.

According to a U.S. indictment, one of the biker gang members communicated through encrypted messaging to "ensure I strike this man in the head with at least half the clip" and "we must remove his head from his torso." (Source: The Washington Post)

A former-IRGC officer is said to have become an informant for the CIA, according to reports from U.S. officials.

The Washington Post reported that one of the Hells Angels members identified in court records is Damion Ryan, 43, who has a criminal record in Canada and has used aliases such as "Berserker" and "Mr. Wolf," while the other is Adam Pearson, 29, who fled Canada for Minneapolis to avoid murder charges.

The newspaper reported that the pair joined the plot in March 2021 and received an initial $20,000 payment for travel expenses. However, the plot failed the same month as Belgian and Dutch security forces decrypted their messaging service and arrested dozens of alleged drug traffickers, including other Hells Angels members.

In February 2022, Ryan was arrested in Ottawa during a home raid that allegedly uncovered a cache of weapons and nearly $100,000 in cash, while Pearson was reportedly arrested by FBI agents in Minnesota and sent back to Canada.

The Hells Angels member who bombed a synagogue in Essen, Germany, was employed by Iran, according to the newspaper.

Despite extensive efforts by police to protect him, Pouria Zeraati, an exiled Iranian journalist who runs the London-based Iran International news channel, which is banned in Iran, was stabbed four times outside his home in the capital of the U.K., according to The Washington Post.

According to the newspaper, the ambush was allegedly carried out by hired criminals who then cleared airport security checks and fled to Eastern Europe, where they have been identified but remain free.

In 2019, the Justice Department accused three men of conspiring to kidnap and assassinate Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who was targeted in New York City for criticizing the regime's human rights violations.

In July 2022, a gunman who arrived at her home in Brooklyn was linked to a Russian mob network and criminal organization known as "Thieves in Law," according to The Washington Post.

The Islamic Republic of Iran stated that it has no intention or plan to carry out assassination or abduction operations, both within the West and in other countries.