Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil, a fugitive gang killer, has been arrested in Qatar more than three years after escaping from a Port Coquitlam jail. Local authorities detained the 38-year-old Wolfpack gangster on Friday, according to multiple sources. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have not commented on the arrest.

A $50,000 reward for information leading to Alkhalil's capture was set to expire on October 7. He escaped from the North Fraser pretrial jail in July 2022, just a month before a Vancouver jury convicted him in absentia of first-degree murder for the 2012 killing of Sandip Duhre, a rival gangster. Alkhalil was also found guilty of conspiring to kill Duhre and Sukh Dhak, another gangster who was shot in Burnaby in November 2012.

This marked Alkhalil's second murder conviction. He was already serving a life sentence for the June 2012 murder of Johnny Raposo in Toronto, who was killed while watching soccer at a café in Little Italy. The BOLO (Be On the Lookout) bulletin described Alkhalil as “a very dangerous criminal with a lengthy criminal record and extensive ties to organized crime.”

An investigation is ongoing into those who may have assisted Alkhalil in his escape, but no charges have been filed yet. In 2017, an Ontario judge sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of Raposo, along with a concurrent 20-year sentence for conspiracy to commit murder. In 2020, he received an eight-year sentence in Quebec for drug trafficking.

In August 2022, a British Columbia Supreme Court jury convicted Alkhalil in the Duhre murder and Dhak conspiracy. The Alkhalil family has a long history of involvement with law enforcement in Canada. They immigrated from Saudi Arabia in 1990 and settled in Surrey, where Robby’s older brothers began to encounter legal troubles.

Khalil Alkhalil, one of Robby’s brothers, was shot and killed in Surrey in January 2001 at the age of 19. His killer, Michael Naud, claimed self-defense and was acquitted by a jury, but was later killed in what was suspected to be retaliation. Another brother, Mahmoud Alkhalil, was also shot dead in 2003 at a nightclub.

After these incidents, the remaining family members moved to Ottawa in 2004 in hopes of starting anew. Nabil Alkhalil, another brother, disappeared for several years before being killed in Mexico in 2018. Meanwhile, Robby Alkhalil's co-accused in the Duhre murder, Hells Angel Larry Amero, is currently serving a sentence of just over nine years for conspiracy related to both the Duhre and Dhak cases and has filed an appeal.