Ottawa police are investigating an arson attack at a Nepean bungalow to establish links to a notorious international crime family, CBC News has learned.

The arson at 95 Rossland Avenue occurred around 3:45 a.m. on October 8. Firefighters arrived and found two people on the lawn who had escaped the fire. Paramedics treated a man and woman for burns and smoke inhalation.

A short walk down Rossland Avenue sits another home once owned by suspected cocaine dealer Hisham “Terry” Alkhalil, one of five gangster brothers in the same family. He sold this property, at least on paper, in 2021.

But even after the sale, in February 2022, a longtime associate of the Alkhalils gang was found hiding in the house and arrested by RCMP.

The house at 95 Rossland Avenue is owned by a numbered company registered in the name of Neveen Alkhalil, confirmed by police sources with full knowledge of the Alkhalil criminal organization as a sister to the Alkhalil brothers.

The address of this numbered company is a Kanata North townhouse registered to their father and mother.

Who are the Alkhalils?

The Alkhalil crime family has ties to British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. In the criminal world, they are synonymous with money, influence and violence.

Two of the five brothers were murdered during gang conflicts in British Columbia in the early 2000s. A third was killed in Mexico in 2018. The youngest escaped from federal prison while awaiting trial for murder and is still at large.

According to older brother Nabil Alkhalil’s 2011 immigration decision, the family arrived in Canada in 1990, landed at Montreal-Mirabel International Airport and requested asylum.

Family patriarch Hossein Alkhalil fled Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, traveling first to Lebanon and then to Saudi Arabia before coming to Canada during the Gulf War with his wife Soumaya Azzam and their children.

In 2004, after the death of two brothers, the family moved to Ottawa.

In 2014, police seized the Rossland Avenue home registered to Terry Alkhalil during construction in an operation called Project Anarchy.

Police seized 24.5 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $12.5 million, four firearms and the house, which was valued at $1.2 million. Charges against Terry Alkhalil were ultimately stayed after the case took too long to come to court.

Notorious gangster found hiding in his home

The following year, the RCMP arrested Hells Angel’s Damion Ryan, an associate of the Alkhalil family and another gangster discovered hiding in Alkhalil’s former home. Police described Ryan as “possibly one of the most prolific organized crime members in our country.”

RCMP say the arrest helped dismantle a Mexican cartel’s international drug trafficking network.

Court records allege Ryan was found at Akhalil’s former home, where firearms were found stored in the kitchen, family room, laundry room and office.

A few months later, Rabih Alkhalil escaped from a British Columbia prison while awaiting charges for murder. He remains at large at the top of Canada’s most wanted list and is believed to be abroad.

Members of the Alkhalil family still own several homes in Ottawa. Ottawa police were not available for an interview but said they were continuing their investigation.