Authorities are unable to confirm reports that Rabih Alkhalil, a convicted murderer who escaped a B.C. jail three years ago, has been arrested in Qatar. At a news conference Monday, the RCMP said it can not confirm the fugitive is in custody. “If that information changes, we will update you accordingly,” Cpl. Sarbjit Sangha, spokesperson for B.C.’s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said. “At this point Rabih Alkhalil remains at large.” After addressing reports of the arrest, Mounties announced charges against three alleged accomplices in the 2022 jailbreak at the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre in Port Coquitlam. Edward Ayoub, John Potvin, and Ryan Van Gool have each been charged with conspiracy to commit prison breach and prison breach. Ayoub, who is from Ottawa, was already in custody in another province when charges were sworn. Van Gool, from Harrison Hot Springs, was arrested in B.C. Friday and remains in custody. Potvin, a 48-year-old from Ottawa, is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant. “We brought you all here today to talk about the success that has already transpired in this investigation,” Sangha said. “This investigation was a complex investigation which included not only local individuals, but individual from across the country.” Authorities also announced charges in what they described as a foiled murder plot out of Kamloops, B.C. “While conducting the investigation into the escape of Rabih Alkhalil, our investigators uncovered a further murder conspiracy that was about to occur that they prevented, preserving public safety in one of our communities here in our province,” Sangha said. “They need to be applauded for that today.” Van Gool has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and firearms offences in that case, along with two Surrey men, Scott Telford and Bryce Telford who were also arrested Friday. Alkhalil is still wanted on a Canada-wide warrant and is still featured as the country’s third most-wanted fugitive by the BOLO program. A reward of up to $50,000 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest. At the time of his escape, during which he was allegedly aided by two men posing or working as contractors, Alkhalil was on trial for the gangland murder of Sandip Duhre in 2012. He was convicted for that murder while at large. 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 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in 2017.
