Besotted 'hitwoman' vanished after pulling trigger - but mum gave up huge clue
A female would-be assassin who travelled from the US to carry out a shooting on behalf of her lover outside a family home has been convicted of conspiracy to murder.
The plot failed after Aimee Betro's gun jammed when she pulled the trigger metres away from the intended victim. The 45-year-old was disguised in a niqab in an attempt to disguise her identity when she carried out the attempted hit in a quiet Birmingham cul-de-sac in September 2019.
She fired three shots into two bedroom windows, with a glove left behind leading to her arrest after her mother provided a DNA sample to the FBI, according to the Daily Mail. It allowed officers to link her to the revenge plots set up on the orders of her Derby-based boyfriend and drug dealer, Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, who used her to get back at two separate associates he held grudges against.
READ MORE: Mum 'robbed of justice' after 'beautiful' 12-week-old son killed by his own dad
Hannah Sidaway OBE, a specialist lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service in the West Midlands, told the Mail's Trial+ podcast: "The FBI, assisting the UK authorities, were able to track down the mother of Amy Betro living in a trailer in Wisconsin.
"Fortunately, the DNA profiling system used in America is compatible with the DNA profiling used in the UK, and we got a hit."
The mother is said to have urged her daughter to come forward after she went on the run following the failed hit. Betro, who wore pink Converse trainers and her hair in two 'space buns' during her trial at Birmingham Crown Court, had denied trying to kill drug dealer Sakinder Ali, 33, for Nazir.
Betro and Nazir had met on an internet dating site and she was said to be "besotted" with him. She told jurors she slept with the 31-year-old when she previously visited the UK. Detectives found no evidence that she was paid for the attempted assassination.
CCTV footage captured her dressed in disguise and pointing the firearm at Mr Ali's head after she ambushed him on the street outside his suburban Birmingham home, in September 2019. But the gun jammed and he managed to drive away.
Betro returned a few hours later and fired several shots at his property but miraculously no-one was hurt.
She denied being the gunman and instead claimed she was elsewhere and another "American woman who sounded similar, used the same phone and had the same trainers" must have carried out the botched hit.
She also said it was just a "terrible coincidence" she was caught on CCTV around the corner six minutes later.
But the jury dismissed her version of events and convicted her of conspiracy to murder, possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and a charge related to the alleged importation of ammunition into the UK.
The court heard that, although Nazir was arrested a few weeks later, she evaded capture for almost five years until she was tracked down in her apartment in Armenia last summer.
Betro, a former childcare assistant and baseball ticket seller, is expected to be jailed for life, with a lengthy minimum term, when she is sentenced next week.
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Aimee Betro: How a second bungled plot was hitwoman's downfall
Aimee Betro failed at her mission to assassinate her long-distance lover's rival - but in the days after her bungled attack, she still believed she could cover her tracks and evade police. The US woman, who had been on the run for five years, was this week found guilty of conspiracy to murder after trying to shoot dead a Birmingham businessman in 2019 as part of a revenge it was a second failed plot, alongside her co-conspirator, to frame an innocent English man for Betro's failed shootings that eventually led to her a post office in Illinois, Betro sent packages of ammunition and gun parts to that innocent party in Derby - and police in England did initially arrest him, suspecting him of being responsible.A series of mistakes, though, left a plethora of DNA and other evidence that gave the police and prosecutors a strong case against Betro - leaving her facing a lengthy jail term when she returns to court for sentencing next week. Betro, 45, had travelled to England from her home in West Allis, Wisconsin, to carry out a planned assassination that was conceived by co-conspirator Mohammed Nazir, whom she had met on a dating and his father Mohammed Aslam launched a vendetta after they were injured during disorder at bridal shop Seher Boutique on Alum Rock Road in July 2018, which was owned by businessman Aslat pair were so angered by the fight - reportedly over the price of a wedding suit - they set out for revenge against Mr Mahumad, recruiting Betro to though she had no obvious criminal background, she agreed - flying to the UK to kill a man she didn't know. On the night of the attack, Betro disguised herself in a niqab and laid in wait outside the Mahumad family home in Yardley, Birmingham. When Mr Mahumad's son Sikander Ali arrived at the property, she stepped out and attempted to shoot at point blank range. Her gun jammed or malfunctioned, and Mr Ali fled the scene the early hours of the following day, she returned to the scene and fired three times at the empty day after that, Betro left the UK and the second plan came into effect, with Nazir joining her back in the US as the pair hatched a plot to target another man. CCTV footage captured Betro at a post office in Palatine, Illinois, where she shipped off the illegal goods, using the false name M Chandler. As part of the scheme, Nazir also tipped off the police about the packages in order to frame the man in England to whom it was addressed. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said DNA evidence had played a "crucial part" in proving Betro's guilt and linked her to both the attempted attack in Birmingham and the ammunition DNA was found inside all three packages sent to frame the innocent Derby man, as well as on a black glove inside a Mercedes she had used as a getaway vehicle, following the attempted from both crime scenes were also compared and shown to be from the same person, the CPS confirmed. In separate proceedings to Betro, both Nazir, 31, and Aslam, 59, each from Derby, were jailed last year for conspiracy to faced trial this summer, ending up in a British court after a globetrotting international warrant for her arrest was issued by the UK in June 2024 and when law enforcement finally caught up with her, she had spent five years on the run. She was eventually tracked down in Armenia, where she was in hiding, and extradited to the week Betro was convicted of conspiracy to murder, possession of a firearm with intent and being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of Ali, on whom she had pulled the gun and tried to fire, was last year jailed for drugs and firearm offences unrelated to the incident in Birmingham. Det Ch Insp Alastair Orencas, from West Midlands Police, said an "incredible amount of work" had gone into building a picture of Betro's activities while she was in the explained how the Wisconsin native had posted pictures and videos of famous landmarks, in efforts to pass herself off as a tourist, when her real purpose was to commit murder."We worked really closely with partners such as the Armenian Government, NCA, FBI, Crown Prosecution Service and Derbyshire Constabulary to bring Betro back to the UK to face justice," he BBC has contacted the FBI for comment. John Sheehan, head of the CPS Extradition unit, said it was a "complex" investigation and extradition process which required bringing together multiple agencies."We worked together to make sure we had a watertight prima facie case in order to lawfully arrest Aimee Betro in a foreign country without her becoming aware and potentially fleeing again," he is due to be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on 21 August. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Scottish Sun
4 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
I walked streets of Washington and saw scenes straight from disaster movie after terrifying breakdown in law and order
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE armoured vehicles were stationed in position, troops in combat fatigues buzzed around and temperatures headed towards 33C. But this wasn't a scene from Iraq or Afghanistan. We were standing in Washington DC, the birthplace of American democracy. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 The Lincoln Memorial monument now serves as a backdrop to row after row of tents where homeless people are massed Credit: James Breeden for The Sun 4 Some were lying comatose on the floor unable to wake up Credit: James Breeden for The Sun Donald Trump's decision to send in the National Guard was met with outrage, but a tour of the capital's streets by The Sun revealed, in just one single night, a terrifying breakdown in law and order. Washington's Lincoln Memorial is such a symbol of America that it features on the five-dollar bill. But the monument now serves as a backdrop to row after row of tents where homeless people are massed in a camp which looks like the cross-Channel migrant 'jungle' in Calais. Rubbish was strewn everywhere, and the occupants were clearly in it for the long haul. One had even somehow set up a washing machine. READ MORE ON WASHINGTON DC NO-GO ZONE Washington will be besieged by riots if Trump wins or loses, says security chief Under a nearby bridge, mattresses and glass beer bottles lay scattered everywhere. Piercing scream I have never seen so many homeless in a city. Within 30 seconds of arriving at the world-famous Union Station, I was confronted by a woman lying on the floor, with her trousers falling down. More rows of homeless were slumped outside a library just a street away from the White House, and they took no heed of Trump's warning – telling me: 'We are never leaving.' Some had been smoking what they told me was super-strength cannabis, and were lying comatose on the floor unable to wake up. A security guard at a nearby Hilton hotel said: 'You think this is crazy? You should have seen it last week. There was a shooting nearby.' Five US cities where Donald Trump could next launch militarized crime crackdown as DC launch exposes Democrat failures He claimed that at the weekend, kids go to party and take fentanyl – a drug said to be more dangerous than heroin – on the rooftop of a nearby hotel. Its swimming pool sits a matter of yards from the Capitol, home of America's parliament. One such get-together ended in a shooting – and when I left town the killer was still on the loose. Not far away was a posh restaurant where the cheapest glass of wine will set you back 15 dollars. But diners peering through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows can see the canvas of a tent and half a dozen homeless people shouting and swearing. Locals say they are a group out of their minds on crack cocaine. One man verbally abused me as he held a sign condemning 'the human race' and another was seen shouting at a little girl that she was a 'b***h', because she didn't give him a dollar. Suddenly, there was a piercing scream and a woman had been knocked over by a speeding car. Later, in scenes straight from a Hollywood disaster movie, we witnessed hundreds of FBI officers being briefed at a base near one of Washington's most dangerous neighbourhoods, Anacostia. One by one, their cars left the centre in dramatic fashion. That evening's mission: A crackdown on 'bloodthirsty criminals'. We attempted to take a leaf out of the FBI's book and venture into the neighbourhood ourselves but swiftly realised that was a bad idea, as masked gangs loitered on the streets looking for trouble. As we cruised back to town, we spotted six blacked-out SUVs full of Drug Enforcement Administration officers armed with machine guns stopping a car and arresting a wrong 'un. Another man was half-naked and trying to dance with scared tourists Scarlet Howes A crazed man sat in just his underpants at a bus stop he had turned into a makeshift home, and was terrifying people. A woman coming home from work was so scared she jumped on the wrong bus just to escape from him. He had taken fentanyl and, when he saw us, put his middle finger up. Another man was half-naked and trying to dance with scared tourists who just wanted to see the city's famous landmarks. It seemed the men who Trump called 'drugged-out maniacs' were lurking around almost every corner. And his plan was in full force, as nearly every street had a police car parked up, or a special agent. There were too many of them to count. 4 The Sun's Scarlet speaks to a homeless man in the city centre Credit: James Breeden for The Sun
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
REVEALED: How dealers are selling hard drugs during Mass in the pews of Britain's biggest Catholic cathedral
It's Sunday evening and more than 100 worshippers are attending Mass in Westminster Cathedral, the UK's largest Catholic church. But while the sound of choral music and the soothing words of the liturgy echo around the 130-year-old building, the scene outside is far from holy. For in one of the church's exterior alcoves on Ambrosden Street, little more than 30 feet from the main altar inside, the Daily Mail watches as a topless man in tight khaki trousers and matted dark hair greets another individual whose rolled-up tracksuit bottoms expose hideous cuts and scrapes up his legs. The topless man hands over a small package of what looks like white powder. The other pays with a single £10 note. Westminster Cathedral is not only the most revered site of Roman Catholic worship in the country and the place where Boris and Carrie Johnson married in 2021, it also lies at the heart of the capital's most famous district, the so-called London Heritage Quarter, which includes Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament. In recent months, however, the cathedral and its grounds have been overrun with petty criminals pushing a range of Class A drugs – including cocaine, heroin and the synthetic drug known as 'spice' – to a growing community of local vagrants for as little as £5 a hit. In an appalling escalation of this already grim story, we can reveal that there have even been reports of drug deals taking place inside Westminster Cathedral itself, with one regular worshipper reporting a 'brazen' exchange that occurred in a pew during Mass last week while horrified members of the congregation looked on helplessly. This was confirmed by a private security officer hired to patrol the surrounding area, from Victoria Street all the way down to Pimlico by the Thames. 'There are deals going on inside the cathedral, in the pews and in the quiet side-chapels too,' he says. 'That's simply because we have a presence on the streets now – along with Police Community Support Officers – which makes it more difficult to deal outside.' The fact that drug deals are being conducted so openly in and around the cathedral has understandably shocked worshippers, who are appalled at the 'desecration' of a sacred site. And the phenomenon is all the more concerning because there are two schools – St Vincent's Primary and Westminster Cathedral Choir School – located within the cathedral's grounds. The proliferation of drugs has led to episodes of shocking violence and anti-social behaviour, including reports of drugged-up vagrants defecating in the street. It's no wonder visitors to Westminster Cathedral and people who live in its shadow – where two-bedroom flats can cost as much as £4million – now fear for their safety. This week, we saw several drug dealers operating around the cathedral, with numerous sales being made every hour to a steady stream of buyers, the vast majority of whom appeared to be vulnerable and homeless. Our photographer took pictures that show emaciated people, many with caps pulled down low over their faces and carrying plastic bags, exchanging small packages, typically while facing the cathedral walls in an attempt to go unseen. Far from being the sort of high-level transactions conducted by drug-dealing king-pins in the back of blacked-out Mercedes, these small-time exchanges smack of a desperate search for a dangerously cheap hit by addicts who have fallen through the cracks of society. Data from Parliament's public accounts committee released earlier this year found Westminster to have the second highest homelessness rate of all the London boroughs, with more than 7,500 people of no fixed abode. About 500 of those are thought to be rough sleepers, a predicament often associated with drug-taking and anti-social behaviour. One of the main reasons that Westminster has been so badly affected is due to the concentration of homeless shelters and charities in the area. Westminster Cathedral is located within 500 yards of five organisations that work to combat homelessness including Passage House, a shelter with 37 beds. A large percentage of the people hanging around the cathedral are believed to be recent arrivals to the UK. A trio of homeless individuals told the Daily Mail they had arrived from Eritrea six months earlier and had previously been sleeping rough near Heathrow airport. One of the three men admitted that drugs were being dealt 'everywhere' around the church and, gesturing towards the front gates, described a hidden corner on private property to the rear of the cathedral as a particularly popular exchange point As the conversation came to an end, another man offered us 'snow' – the street name for cocaine – observing that it was 'easy to get round here'. The cathedral has responded to the growing drug problem in its precincts by beefing up security, with four guards now patrolling the entrance and its surrounds during opening hours. Parishioner Ethal Bram, 79, who attends Mass weekly, admitted she 'wouldn't be surprised in the slightest' if there were drug deals occurring inside the cathedral. 'I've seen people walking up to the altar and shouting down the microphone,' she says. 'I've seen people walk in the church just aimlessly wandering. Not sure what they're doing but again I wouldn't be surprised if it was drug-related. It is sad because it is a place of reverence.' This observation was echoed by 53-year-old Martino Junior Jose, a Dominican cleaner at the cathedral, who says homeless people 'gather in the church together'. 'They have left messes in the toilet,' he adds, 'and I have had to ask security to remove the people. But what can you do? You cannot prohibit them from using the toilet, especially if you don't catch [them doing] anything unlawful. It's a public place, after all.' Clare Rewcastle, 66, who lives in a mansion block that overlooks the cathedral on Morpeth Terrace, says the drugs problem in the area 'has hit like a truck' and warns that the 'relevant services and authorities need to wake up'. 'A lot of the problem goes back to the de-policing of the area over the past decade,' she says. 'A number of police stations have closed down, including Belgravia and, of course, Scotland Yard [has been relocated]. Compared to the late 1990s, there has been virtually no visible policing in the area. This drugs problem started last year and exploded this summer. 'Being next to the church, we have over the years been fairly tolerant of the odd vagrant looking for kindness around the cathedral door but this has hit like a truck and people are in the most appalling state of sickness, confusion and dying before our eyes.' According to one private security officer responsible for moving on vagrants who gather on the cathedral steps, police have arrested the three primary dealers – who are well-known to the authorities – on numerous occasions, 'only for the courts to let them out 48 hours later when they return to their old ways'. Evidence of such rigorous policing, however, is hard to come by, as the Met refuses to release data on arrests in the area. But the Daily Mail discovered that just one set of legal proceedings is pending for the offence of drug dealing around Westminster Cathedral. Glen Bahadur, 63, was apprehended outside the Grade II-listed Clergy House beside the cathedral on May 16 this year for possession of cannabis and an offensive weapon, in this case a knuckleduster. In the circumstances, it comes as no surprise that an employee of the neighbouring St Paul's bookshop told us she feels intimidated: 'The quantity of homeless people around the church this year is the most I have ever seen. 'I often see weird behaviour and it scares me. This is by far the worst I have seen it in my 19 years of working here.' One problem for the police, admits a local PCSO, is that 'the bigger players rarely carry drugs on them. They rely on others to do the petty dealing'. Naturally, this makes stopping the problem at source much harder. On nearby Carlisle Place, we spoke to the mother of a three-year-old boy whose husband serves in the Armed Forces and is stationed at the barracks off Vincent Square, a little over five minutes walk away. 'There are people doing drugs in the middle of the day,' she said. 'I even sent the police a picture of a man dealing drugs from the doorway of the barracks. But the police are doing nothing. There's screaming in the middle of the night and it echoes down the street. The constant beep of stolen Lime bikes. We're going through a living hell.' But by far the worst incident this mother has seen came while walking past the old Telephone Exchange, a three-minute walk from the cathedral steps. A man 'clearly under the influence of something, dropped his pants in broad daylight and [went to the toilet] on the pavement'. Becoming increasingly upset, the mother, who wishes to remain anonymous due to her connection with the military, adds that, days earlier, an individual had broken into the barracks' communal laundry room and defecated in the tumble dryer. 'Barracks are run down around the country, and the security isn't great,' she says. 'Someone just waltzed in and did that. It's unspeakably horrible.' Local Labour MP Rachel Blake chaired a meeting of furious residents on July 23 and followed up with an email to constituents, seen by the Daily Mail, in which she admitted: 'It is quite wrong that residents are having to live like this and that you should have to continue raising the matter with public bodies.' She also promised to formulate an 'action plan' in consultation with Westminster City Council, the police and 'local partners'. Westminster Cathedral told us it 'takes seriously any allegation of drug dealing within its premises and urges anyone who witnesses such activity to report it immediately to our security team or the police'. But it remains adamant that 'our team has received no direct reports of drug-dealing inside the cathedral'. Meanwhile, the drugs trade outside continues largely unhindered. 'As usual,' says a 70-year-old local man called Bart, 'the safety and well-being of the majority has been sacrificed by a minority of crooks... But without any help from the authorities, ironically, all we can do is pray.'
