Elias Akl (
)
Good luck trying to blend in.
A tattooed man who has acted in a Martin Scorsese feature film is now being hunted as an international fugitive for committing a violent armed assault in a Canadian nightclub in 2009.
Ziad Akl, 38, is believed by authorities to be on the run in the US after he was declared a wanted man by police in Quebec. Akl has gained attention as an actor and has landed feature roles in at least two studio-produced Hollywood films.
In Scorsese’s taut psychological thriller “Shutter Island,” Akl played an inmate dubbed “The Tattooed Man.”
He also portrayed an inmate in David O. Russell’s “The Fighter.”
Police in Laval, Quebec say they believe Akl and his brother, Elias Akl are involved in drug trafficking and they are cautioning members of the public to contact law enforcement authorities if they see either man.
“We think they could be armed and dangerous,” Laval police Constable Nathalie Lorrain told The Post.
Canadian authorities issued a wanted notice for the Akl brothers today after investigators decided they had hit a dead-end in determining their whereabouts.
In the 2009 incident at the Red Lite – a popular nightclub that draws crowds from the Montreal metropolitan area – Ziad Akl, his brother and several friends, were ejected by bouncers after they tried to sell drugs to bar patrons, officials said.
“The group the two brothers were with were trying to control drug trafficking inside the club,” Lorrain said.
Investigators “definitely” believe that Ziad Akl and his brother are involved in drug dealing, she said.
As they were being escorted out of the club, one of the brothers’ friends pulled out a knife and stabbed a bouncer.
When the bouncer fell to the floor, Ziad Akl continued the assault, Lorrain said.
“Ziad kicked the victim while the victim was in the floor – kicked him in the face,” she said.
“He is seen by the [nightclub’s] surveillance camera hitting and kicking him,” she said.
After the group fled, the bouncer was hospitalized and treated for stab wounds and for injuries from the beating, she said.
A court convicted the man who stabbed the bouncer and he served several years in prison for the assault, officials said.
Ziad Akl disappeared soon after the incident, police say, and investigators suspect that he’s living somewhere in the US – possibly in the Northeast or New England, where he has relatives.
Some of his relatives live outside Boston in the historic town of Salem, investigators say.
“We think he’s been in the States all this time,” Lorrain told The Post.
Police suspect that Ziad’s 40-year-old brother, Elias, may be living in Costa Rica.
mmaddux@nypost.com