The man who escaped from a B.C. prison in 2022, Rabih Alkhalil, is back in custody after being arrested overseas, police confirm.
The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said in a news release Thursday morning (Sept. 25) that Alkhalil was arrested in Qatar. He had been using an alias.
In early September, when police announced charges against three men accused in aiding with Alkhalil's escape, there were reports from multiple media outlets that he had been arrested in Qatar.
The release says that the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and RCMP worked with Qatar's Interior Ministry in the arrest. They're now working with Interpol as well to have Alkhalil returned to Canada.
Alkhalil has been wanted for more than three years for being unlawfully at large. The investigation was transferred to the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit in February 2023 and the RCMP's Federal Policing Pacific Region joined in December 2023.
He escaped from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam on July 21, 2022, aided by two men posing as contractors.
At the time of his escape, Akhalil was on trial for a 2012 murder. He has since been found guilty of first-degree murder in Vancouver.
It's Alkhalil's second murder charge. In 2017, an Ontario judge sentenced him to life in prison for the first-degree murder of a man in a Toronto coffee shop, and he was also given a concurrent sentence of 20 years for conspiracy to commit murder.
In 2020, Alkhalil was sentenced in Quebec to eight years in prison for drug trafficking.
Alleged accomplice arrested in Spain
Just three days before announcing Alkhalil was in custody, police confirmed that one of his alleged accomplices had been arrested in Spain.
The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and RCMP were notified through Interpol on Sept. 19 that 49-year-old John Potvin was arrested in Spain. He was the third man to be arrested in the prison-break investigation.
Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and RCMP are working with Interpol and other international partners to return Potvin to Canada.
Potvin has been the subject of a Canada-wide warrant, as well as a Red Notice, which is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and arrest a person.
The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said police had recently obtained a Red Notice for his arrest "as it was learned that he may have fled the country," police said a Sept. 20 news release.
Police announce charges in investigation
Police announced Sept. 8 that Potvin, of Ottawa, was one of three men charged in the multi-year investigation.
Potvin, along with 46-year-old Ryan Van Gool of Harrison Hot Springs and 48-year-old Edward Ayoub of Ottawa were all charged with conspiracy to commit prison breach and prison breach, police said during the Sept. 8 news conference.
Potvin was still at large at the time of the Sept. 8 news conference.
Van Gool was arrested Sept. 5, while Ayoub was in custody on another matter in another province.
