B.C. Fugitive Rabih Alkhalil Captured in Qatar After 3 Years on the Run

A violent fugitive who slipped out of a B.C. jail three years ago has been captured overseas.

RCMP confirmed Thursday that Rabih Alkhalil, 38, was arrested this month in Qatar, where he had been living under an alias. Qatari authorities worked with Canadian police to track him down, ending an international manhunt that spanned three years.

Alkhalil was already serving time for a 2012 Toronto murder and had also been convicted in a Vancouver killing that same year. In July 2022, while awaiting another trial at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, he staged a daring escape. Disguised accomplices posing as contractors drove him out of the jail in a white van.

The breakout made national headlines and put Alkhalil at the top of the Bolo Program’s most-wanted list, which highlights Canada’s 25 most dangerous fugitives.

Since then, investigators in Canada and abroad have worked to close in on him. The RCMP’s Federal Policing Pacific Region coordinated with Qatar’s Ministry of Interior, which police say played a “critical” role in securing the arrest. Authorities are now working with Interpol to arrange his return to Canada.

The prison break also led to charges against three alleged accomplices: Ottawa men Edward Ayoub, 48, and John Potvin, 49, along with B.C. resident Ryan van Gool, 46. Potvin was arrested in Spain earlier this year.

Max Langlois, head of the Bolo Program, called Alkhalil’s capture “the end of one of the most complex fugitive investigations Bolo has seen since its creation.”

For Canadian authorities, the arrest marks a rare victory in a case that had embarrassed the country’s corrections system and fueled questions about how one of its most dangerous criminals managed to slip away.