CRIME
Iranian Man And 2 Canadians Indicted In Assassination Plot In US
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One Iranian national and two Canadian nationals have been indicted in a conspiracy to use interstate commerce in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
According to prosecutors, between December 2020 and March 2021, Naji Sharifi Zindashti, 49, Damion Patrick John Ryan, 43, and Adam Richard Pearson, 29, conspired in a plot to murder two residents of Maryland. The would-be victims of the murder-for-hire plot were not identified in the indictment, but one was described as having defected from Iran.
Zindashti, who is based in Iran, used an encrypted messaging service called “SkyECC” to recruit people to travel to the U.S. to carry out assassinations.
According to the indictment, Zindashti communicated with Ryan about “jobs,” “equipment,” “tools” and plans to “make some money, with Ryan saying a job in the U.S. would be a challenge, but that he might have someone to do it. Ryan then contacted Pearson about a job in Maryland, with Pearson saying “shooting is probably easiest thing for them,” and that he was “on it.”
Zindashti and Ryan agreed on a $350,000 payment for the “job,” plus $20,000 to cover expenses.
“As alleged, Mr. Zindashti and his team of gunmen, including a Minnesota resident, used an encrypted messaging service to orchestrate an assassination plot against two individuals,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger for the District of Minnesota said in a statement. “Thanks to the skilled work of federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents, this murder-for-hire conspiracy was disrupted and the defendants will face justice.”
Ryan and Pearson are currently incarcerated in Canada on unrelated offenses, according to prosecutors.
“To those in Iran who plot murders on U.S. soil and the criminal actors who work with them, let todays charges send a clear message: the Department of Justice will pursue you as long as it takes – and wherever you are – and deliver justice,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division.
TMX contributed to this article.
