Canadians planned to carry out assassinations in the United States on behalf of Iranian intelligence agencies, according to allegations in the newly revealed indictment.

The suspects are accused of plotting to shoot a man and a woman living in Maryland, one of whom is an Iranian defector.

The charges unveiled by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday include details of the alleged plot, including the amount the potential killers requested for the job: $350,000.

This news of the charges comes at a time of severe tension with Iran, as the United States threatens retaliation after three U.S. military personnel were killed in an attack carried out by an Iran-backed militia.

The indictment identifies one of the Canadian suspects as Damien Patrick John Ryan, a full member of the Hells Angels criminal gang who is alleged to have assembled a team of armed men in late 2020 and early 2021. He is alleged to have worked with another Canadian, Adam Richard Pearson, who was living illegally in Minnesota at the time.

They were appointed by an accused Iranian drug dealer acting on instructions from a specific officer in the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, according to the United States.

According to the indictment, Pearson promised to recruit people and promised them he would ask them to repeatedly shoot the victims in the head to serve as a warning to others.

He is also alleged to have sent a text message to Ryan stating to one of the intended victims: "We have to separate his head from his body."

The United States announces sanctions on the network

In a separate action on Monday, the U.S. government announced financial sanctions on the network run by the alleged drug dealer Naji Ibrahim Sharifi Zendeshti.

U.S. authorities say Zendeshti is based in Iran, and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security unleashed his criminal operation.

They say that in exchange for state protection, the criminal group carries out assassinations and kidnappings across multiple continents against opponents of the Iranian regime; according to the U.S. Treasury Department, these operations were overseen by Ministry of Intelligence officer Reza Hamidirafavi.

Brian Nelson, a U.S. Treasury Department official, said the Iranian regime's continued efforts to target defectors and activists demonstrate the regime's deep insecurity and attempt to extend Iranian internal repression internationally.

The charges do not specify the intended targets in Maryland.

As for the two suspects, both are already in prison. Ryan is currently imprisoned in Canada on firearms charges, and the FBI arrested Pearson in 2021 and extradited him to Canada for a murder committed in Alberta four years earlier.

They are now charged in the U.S. with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in a contract killing plot, as is the case with Zendeshti, and Pearson also faces separate firearms charges.

The new charges have not been proven in court.