The Fruit Cart Cartel: Egypt's 'Aristocrats Gang' and the $60 Million Kidnapping Plot Undone by a Burner Phone

In 2014, a wealthy factory owner named Mr. Kamal was kidnapped in Assiut by a notorious group known as the “Akaaber Gang.” The gang was led by two men, Sameh and Maged (real names Hamada and Nabil), who ran a highly organized and professional criminal network. They demanded a huge ransom for Kamal’s release, using multiple burner phones across different governorates to avoid detection and hiding their operations behind a fruit and vegetable distribution business that acted as a front. The breakthrough in the case came when investigators traced the ransom calls to Atef, a former employee of Kamal’s, which led police directly to the gang leaders. It was later revealed that Sameh and Maged were career criminals with a long history of murders and kidnappings, and that their sophisticated schemes had earned them over 100 million Egyptian pounds before their eventual arrest.You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms:https://linktr.ee/crimenight1Produced by:https://www.podcaistudio.com/