Toronto Police Link Jewish Site Shootings to Paid Criminal Network, with Iran Ties Under Scrutiny

Toronto police say a dark web network in Canada has been recruiting young people to shoot at synagogues and other Jewish sites in Toronto and to film the attacks as proof they were carried out. Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at a Tuesday news conference that a string of shootings and arsons targeting Jewish institutions in Toronto and other Canadian cities were carried out by what police describe as hired criminals, none of whom has yet killed bystanders, but all of whom fired deliberately.

Demkiw said the attackers communicate through encrypted messaging apps and are paid for the assaults. “In order to get paid, they are required to film their attacks,” he said, according to the Toronto Star. “Who is paying for it? That’s what we’re trying to determine.” He added that whoever is behind the campaign clearly wants to spread fear in the Jewish community.

The Toronto investigation escalated last week with a wave of arrests linked to the shootings, and during one raid 43-year-old officer Mark Pinizotto was killed. Police have charged three people and are still searching for 19-year-old Zara Jebi, whom they describe as armed, dangerous and wanted in connection with a shooting at the U.S. consulate.

U.S. prosecutors say that consulate attack connects Toronto’s local violence to a much broader campaign. In March, two gunmen sprayed the outside of the U.S. consulate and escaped in a white Honda without causing casualties. Prosecutors say the organizer was Muhammad al-Saadi, an Iraqi-Iranian citizen and senior Iran-backed figure linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who is now detained in the United States after being arrested in Turkey and extradited. Court filings connect him to at least 18 attacks and arsons across Europe and two in Canada, including the consulate shooting and an attack on a Toronto synagogue, presented as retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. In one recorded call cited by prosecutors, he boasted that in Canada, as in Europe and America, “we have our guys.” Al-Saadi has pleaded not guilty, and his defense says, “We are in a state of war.”