Police heap pressure on crime group brothers built
Police pressure on a crime group built by five brothers continued as authorities seized real estate housing a restaurant in Ottawa and a nightclub in Gatineau from the Alkhalil organization, claiming the buildings are the proceeds of crime.
Authorities restrained the Abu Abed Café at the corner of Olmstead and Gladu streets in the national capital, and a building housing a stretch of three businesses on Promenade du Portage, just across the bridge from Parliament Hill.
Hisham “Terry” Alkhalil, 33, of Ottawa, the third born of the five brothers, was served with the asset restraint notice Wednesday.
“It is the belief of investigators that these properties were obtained through their criminal operations,” said Insp. Mike Laviolette of the Ottawa police.
The owner of a business in one of the buildings said the retail businesses are caught in the middle of the restraint order.
“We are innocent business owners. … I am a very hard-working and legitimate business owner who pays taxes and the rent,” an owner said, requesting their name not be published.
The buildings have an estimated combined worth of about $1.4 million.
Police have already seized Alkhalil’s newly constructed Ottawa home on Rossland Avenue after his arrest in 2014. It is valued at about $1.1 million.
The 2014 arrest of Alkhalil and eight others in Project Anarchy is the largest criminal probe the Ottawa police have undertaken. Called “a pre-emptive strike” to avert a gang war, police seized 24.5 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $12.5 million and four guns.
Six of the nine arrested have since pleaded guilty and received sentences ranging from six to 10 years in prison. Alkhalil and one co-accused continue to fight the drug-related charges in court.
This asset probe, called Project Attar, picked up where the criminal probe left off, calling in forensic accountants to analyze business records and trace how money was made and where it went.
The Alkhalil family moved to Ontario and Quebec from British Columbia after years of violence and bloodshed. Their family arrived in Canada from Saudi Arabia as refugees in 1990, although their roots are believed to be in Iran, and settled in Surrey, B.C.
In 2001, Khalil Alkhalil, 19, the second-oldest, was shot dead in Surrey in a gunfight over a drug debt.
His killer claimed self-defence and was freed. The shooter’s lawyer was beaten up in court by angry supporters of the Alkhalils and the shooter himself was later gunned down in Kelowna in a case that remains unsolved.
Mahmoud Alkhalil, 19, the fourth-oldest, was one of three killed in a gunfight in 2003 between rival gangs in Vancouver’s Loft Six nightclub. He made it out of the club but was found bleeding and unconscious after crashing his car 20 blocks away.
The youngest, Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil, 28, was only two when he came to Canada. Last February, he was extradited to Canada after his arrest in Greece.
There is a lineup to prosecute him: In Vancouver, he is charged with first-degree murder in the 2012 hit on gangster Sandip “Dip” Duhre in the Sheraton Wall Centre; in Toronto, he is charged with first-degree murder in the 2012 shooting of Johnnie Raposo on the patio of the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe in Little Italy; and in Montreal and Niagara Falls, Ont., he faces cocaine smuggling charges.
The eldest, Nabil Alkhalil, is on the run abroad. Soon after his release from jail in 2005 for assault, his Cadillac was stopped for speeding on Highway 401 near Cornwall. When he was asked to open the trunk, he drove off, leaving his brother, Hisham, behind and led police on a high-speed chase. When he was caught, a duffel bag with 11 kilos of cocaine was found nearby.
Nabil was convicted of cocaine trafficking and ordered deported but because he is considered stateless — no country will grant him travel papers — he remained. He was released from immigration detention in 2010. In 2013, he fled the country; his family said he feared gangland retribution by rivals in Canada.
His whereabouts are unknown.