A well-known gangster already charged for a Toronto hit is now facing a first-degree murder charge for the high-profile execution of rival Sandip Duhre in downtown Vancouver in January 2012.
The murder charge was sworn against Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil on March 18, 2013, according to the provincial court data base.
Vancouver Police will announce more details of the arrest at a news conference this morning.
Alkhalil has not yet appeared in court on the charge as he was only arrested in Greece in February in connection with the Toronto murder in June 2012 of Johnnie Raposo outside a café in Toronto’s Little Italy.
Police sources say that Alkhalil was the mastermind behind the Duhre murder, though others are also believed to have been involved.
Duhre’s relatives have been told in recent months that investigators are making good progress. But given that the two suspects are already facing charges in Ontario, there likely wouldn’t be a speedy prosecution in B.C.
Alkhalil, 25, also faces cocaine smuggling charges in Montreal, along with B.C. Hells Angel Larry Amero and several others.
Alkhalil came to Canada from Saudi Arabia in 1990 with his parents and siblings and made a refugee claim. They settled in Surrey, but relocated to the Ottawa area after two of his brothers were murdered.
Khalil, just 19, was shot to death in Surrey in 2001 and Mamoud, also 19 at the time, was killed in the infamous Loft Six nightclub shooting in downtown Vancouver in August 2003.
Another Alkhalil brother, Nabil, has been ordered deported because of a cocaine trafficking conviction in Ontario. But he remains in Canada because he is stateless.
Alkhalil has been extremely close to Amero in recent years.
Amero was wounded in the August 2011 Kelowna shooting in which Red Scorpion Jon Bacon was killed.
After the shooting, police said members of the Dhak-Duhre crime group could be targeted in retaliation. More than a dozen people linked to the gang have since been killed including Duhre and Sukh Dhak.
Three Dhak associates are now charged with the first-degree murder of Bacon.
But hostilities between the Alkhalil’s and Duhre’s associates date back to the Loft Six shootout.
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