Iran has expanded its tactics of silencing critics by turning to criminal organizations like the Hells Angels to avoid detection of security services monitoring Iranian intelligence and security operatives, a report by The Washington Post says.
The revelations were reported by the Post on Thursday. One particular case involved Pouria Zeraati, an exiled Iranian journalist working for Iran International, a London-based satellite news channel that broadcasts to millions in Iran, wrote the Washington Post. In March 2023, Zeraati was ambushed and stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon by attackers who were not Iranian nationals and had no apparent ties to Iran’s intelligence services.
Instead, British investigators revealed that the assailants were Eastern European criminals hired by Tehran, underscoring how Iran has started outsourcing its plots to foreign criminals in order to avoid Western scrutiny.
“We’re not dealing with the usual suspects,” said Matt Jukes, head of counterterrorism policing in the UK. “What we’ve got is a hostile state actor that sees the battlefield as being without borders, and individuals in London are as legitimate as targets as if they were in Iran.” The attack on Zeraati, which he survived after being stabbed four times, was a warning to critics of the Iranian government that its reach is global, and its threats deadly.
According to the article, for years, Iran has been one of the world’s most determined practitioners of “transnational repression,” a term used to describe the actions of governments that use violence, intimidation, and surveillance against their own citizens abroad.
However, its reliance on criminal proxies, gangs, mafia organizations, and narco-traffickers, marks a shift in how it carries out these missions. By outsourcing assassination attempts and abductions, the Islamic Republic shields itself from direct blame and makes it harder for Western intelligence agencies to connect the dots.
The use of criminal syndicates has allowed Iran to carry out operations with relative ease. Zeraati’s attackers, for example, passed through security at Heathrow Airport, tracked him for days, and fled the country hours after the attack. Tehran’s outsourcing model has included groups such as the Russian mob network “Thieves in Law,” and the Hells Angels, known for their involvement in drug trafficking and organized crime across North America and Europe, added the report.
In some cases, these hired hands have been instructed to carry out grotesque acts of violence, such as a failed plot in Maryland where Hells Angels members were contracted to assassinate a former Iranian military officer living in the United States.
In July 2022, a gunman appeared at the Brooklyn home of Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad, later identified as Khalid Mehdiyev, a member of the sprawling criminal network known as "Thieves in Law." This organization operates under a mafia-style code of honor to which its members are strictly bound.
Mehdiyev was arrested after being stopped for a traffic violation near Alinejad’s residence. Upon searching his vehicle, police discovered an AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition, and a ski mask, according to a US indictment.
Iran’s partnership with the Hells Angels and other criminal gangs is partly born out of necessity. According to Western officials, the government’s own operatives face increasing scrutiny and surveillance from intelligence services, limiting their ability to conduct missions abroad. By turning to these criminal groups, the Islamic Republic circumvents the obstacles while tapping into networks that are already embedded in the West.
In 2021, US officials uncovered a plot involving two Hells Angels members hired to kill an Iranian defector and his wife in Maryland. Their orders, originating from an Iranian heroin kingpin named Naji Sharifi Zindashti, included instructions to make the killing especially brutal. One hitman was told to “erase his head from his torso.” While this plot failed after the assassins were caught, it highlights how far Iran is willing to go to silence those it sees as traitors.
Zindashti, a central figure in Iran’s outsourcing of assassinations, has been described as a “Pablo Escobar-type” drug trafficker. His operations span continents, and his criminal empire has become deeply intertwined with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS). He is believed to have orchestrated multiple killings and kidnappings on behalf of Tehran, including the 2020 abduction and execution of Habib Chaab, an Iranian-Swedish political activist.
According to the Washington Post, these outsourced plots have extended far beyond Iranian exiles. Iran has also been implicated in attacks and threats against US and Israeli officials, Jewish communities in Europe, and LGBTQ+ activists. In 2022, a Pakistani man with ties to Iran attempted to hire a hitman to assassinate American political figures, possibly including former President Donald Trump. The US Justice Department has repeatedly warned that Iran is the most dangerous state sponsor of transnational repression, with its lethal tactics being carried out at unprecedented levels.
Despite Iran’s denials, Western intelligence services have compiled extensive evidence linking the Islamic Republic to these attacks. Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has used violence to suppress dissent, but the scale of its current campaign is without precedent. “We’re seeing a major escalation in lethal plotting from a government that has used this tactic from the outset,” said Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert at the Washington Institute.