Damion Ryan
A full-patch Hells Angel who moved from British Columbia to Ottawa to a chapter in Greece, and who now has live matters in three jurisdictions at once: a 24½-year sentence in Manitoba, a first-degree murder charge in Ontario, and a US indictment alleging he agreed to arrange a killing for an Iranian network. Two of those three have never been tried.
Identity
His full legal name, as it appears in the United States federal indictment, is Damion Patrick John Ryan. He was 41 at the time of his 2022 arrest and 45 at his 2026 sentencing, placing his birth around 1980 or 1981. No source in the public record publishes a date of birth, and none lists a nickname or club alias — a small but telling absence for a man of his standing.
Reporting has variously placed him in Vancouver, Ottawa and Greece, which reflects an actual itinerary rather than journalistic confusion.
Ryan is a full-patch member of the Hells Angels. The sequence reported is:
- Haney chapter, British Columbia — the earliest affiliation. An uncle is described as a long-time Haney member.
- Ottawa Nomads — subsequently. The chapter was later disbanded following an internal dispute.
- Attica, Greece — where he held full-patch status at the time of his 2022 arrest.
No source establishes the year of any transition. The sequence is documented; the dates are not.
He is also, and separately, a figure in the Wolfpack Alliance — the British Columbia coalition drawn from Hells Angels, Red Scorpions and Independent Soldiers members. That connection is not merely a reporter’s characterisation. It is the basis of a criminal conviction: the criminal-organization count on which Ryan was convicted in Manitoba rests on a finding tied to the Wolfpack.
Manitoba — Project Divergent
The investigation began in 2018, when a Manitoba RCMP analyst identified importation patterns pointing at a network moving product into the province from outside it. It ran for four years.
110 kilograms of cocaine · 41.4 kilograms of methamphetamine · 3 kilograms of fentanyl
14 handguns and 5 rifles · $445,000 in cash
22 people charged across three cities. Ryan was arrested in Ottawa on 23 February 2022, holding full-patch status in the Attica chapter at the time.
The trial ran through 2025 and turned in part on evidence from a dealer-turned-informant known in court as Agent 66. Ryan was convicted on 15 December 2025 on the drug conspiracy and criminal-organization counts.
Sentenced 26 June 2026 by Justice Chris W. Martin of the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba.
23 years for conspiring to traffic fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, plus 18 months consecutive for instructing offences on behalf of a criminal organization — a total of 24½ years.
Justice Martin’s assessment: “Mr. Ryan was the kingpin.”
A note on a number in circulation: some coverage renders the sentence as “24 years.” That is a rounding-down of 24½. With credit for pre-sentence custody, roughly eighteen years remained to serve.
Ontario — the Bolton Charge
On 18 January 2021, shortly after midday, Giovanni Costa, 65, was shot dead on Harvest Moon Drive in Bolton, Ontario. A $50,000 provincial reward in the case was publicised by the Ontario Provincial Police a year later.
On 12 March 2026, more than five years after the killing, Ryan was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was announced as the fifth person charged in the file. He made his first appearance in Ottawa on 13 April 2026.
Untried. No disposition has been reported. Ryan is presumed innocent.
Co-accused named publicly include Christopher Brown, 28, of Barrie, and Neheniah Tirfe, 25, of Toronto — both charged, both untried, both presumed innocent. Two further suspects, Fesshaghirgis and Barakziye, were reported as still at large.
Police have also linked a 12 November 2020 shooting at a business on Steeles Avenue West in Vaughan to the same file; one person injured there later became a victim in the Bolton matter. That linkage is a police allegation.
Minnesota — the Murder-for-Hire Indictment
On 29 January 2024, a federal indictment was unsealed in the District of Minnesota charging Ryan, fellow Canadian Adam Richard Pearson and Iranian national Naji Sharifi Zindashti with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. Ryan and Zindashti face that single count; Pearson was additionally charged with possession of a firearm by a fugitive from justice and possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully in the United States.
The allegation is that in January 2021, Zindashti approached Ryan about “a job in the United States,” and that Ryan later reported he was organising it and needed money.
The alleged targets were two Maryland residents, one of them a defector from Iran.
A great deal of aggregated coverage has conflated this indictment with a separate and better-known case involving a plot against the journalist Masih Alinejad. That is a different matter. The Minnesota indictment does not concern her.
Note also that the Department of Justice release makes no mention of the Hells Angels or of Greece. Those descriptors come from media reporting of the indictment, not from the government’s own announcement.
Status: untried. No extradition or US proceeding has been reported since the indictment was unsealed.
The Airport, 2015 — Where He Was the Victim
One episode in Ryan’s record is routinely misremembered, and it is worth setting straight because it runs the other way.
In April 2015, a gunman disguised in a burqa walked up to Ryan in the food court at Vancouver International Airport and pulled the trigger at his head. The pistol jammed. Ryan escaped unhurt. The shooter, Knowah Ferguson, was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced in 2018 to eleven years.
Ryan was the target, not the accused. A belief that he has a history of firearms convictions appears to trace back to this incident, and this publication could find no record of any prior conviction — firearms or otherwise — before the Manitoba verdict.
Manitoba | Convicted and sentenced. 24½ years; roughly 18 remaining after credit for pre-sentence custody
Ontario | Charged with first-degree murder. Untried. Presumed innocent
United States | Indicted in Minnesota. Untried. No extradition reported
Club Status | Full-patch. Haney, then Ottawa Nomads, then Attica
Wolfpack | The criminal-organization element of his Manitoba conviction was proven on a Wolfpack finding in his case
Prior Record | No prior conviction located in the public record
- Public Prosecution Service of Canada — Sentencing release, R. v. Ryan (26 June 2026)
- Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba — R. v. Ryan, 2025 MBKB 153 (Martin J.)
- U.S. Department of Justice — “One Iranian and Two Canadian Nationals Indicted in Murder-for-Hire Scheme” (29 January 2024)
- Manitoba RCMP — Project Divergent announcement (March 2022)
- Ontario Provincial Police — Costa homicide reward announcement (January 2022) and charge announcements (March–April 2026)
- CBC News — Trial and sentencing coverage, and reporting on the Ontario charge
- Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun — Reporting on Ryan’s Wolfpack role
- Global News / CP24 — Bolton homicide charge coverage (2026)
- CBC / CTV — Coverage of the 2015 YVR attempted murder and the Ferguson sentencing