Fugitive who allegedly helped B.C. inmate escape arrested in Spain, police say

A third man facing charges for allegedly helping a convicted murderer escape from prison three years ago has been arrested.

A man wanted Canada-wide for his alleged role in helping gangland killer Rabih Alkhalil break out of a British Columbia jail has been arrested, police said Saturday.

John Potvin is charged with conspiracy to commit prison breach and prison breach, and he was the subject of a Red Notice earlier this month.

The 49-year-old from Ottawa is one of three men charged in connection to Alkhalil’s escape. The other two are 48-year-old Ottawa resident Edward Ayoub and 46-year-old Ryan Van Gool of Harrison Hot Springs, B.C.

Van Gool was arrested earlier this month and Ayoub was already in custody on another matter, according to police.

Potvin remained at large, but investigators were notified through Ottawa Interpol on Friday that he has been arrested in Spain, according to a Saturday news release from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C., the province’s anti-gang police unit.

The CFSEU-BC and RCMP Federal Policing Pacific Region are working with Interpol and other international partners to have Potvin returned to Canada, police said.

“The successful apprehension of this individual in Spain is a testament to the strength of international law enforcement partnerships,” said Cpl. Sarbjit K. Sangha, media relations officer for the CFSEU-BC, in the release.

“Our ability to co-ordinate across jurisdictions and share intelligence demonstrates the collective commitment to ensuring that those who attempt to evade justice are held accountable. We are grateful to Spanish law enforcement agencies for making this arrest possible.”

During their investigation of Alkhalil’s escape, police uncovered and foiled a murder plot in Kamloops involving Van Gool and two other men.

Van Gool and two Surrey men – 28-year-old Bryce Telford and 61-year-old Scott Telford – have been charged with conspiracy to murder and firearms offences.

All three men were arrested on Sept. 5 and appeared in Vancouver provincial court on Sept. 10.

Alkhalil himself remains at large, having broken out of the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam in 2022 while he was on trial for the 2012 murder of Sandip Duhre. The trial continued in his absence, and he was convicted.

During his escape, Alkhalil was allegedly aided by two men posing or working as contractors.

Duhre was gunned down while sitting at a restaurant in a busy downtown Vancouver hotel, a brazen execution that caused terrified patrons to flee or fall to the floor.

Six months later, on a patio in Toronto’s Little Italy, Johnny Raposo was shot four times in the head at point-blank range. Alkhalil was one of four men convicted of that murder.

Alkhalil was the last of the four suspects arrested in the killing and had to be extradited from Greece to stand trial in that case. All four men were ultimately sentenced in 2017 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Lisa Steacy and The Canadian Press