4 days ago
Revealed: How the mother of a US hitwoman helped convict her own daughter for failed assassination plot
A US hitwoman who flew halfway across the world to carry out an assassination attempt for her British lover was caught thanks to her own mother, it emerged today.
The Mail can exclusively reveal that Jeanne Johnson, 64, the mother of Aimee Betro, 45, agreed to handover a DNA swab to the FBI when her daughter went on the run following the botched UK hit.
Ms Johnson's sample was examined by scientists and found to be a 'familial' match for DNA discovered by West Midlands Police on a glove left at the scene of the attempted assassination and on parcels of gun parts and bullets Betro subsequently sent to Britain.
It allowed officers to link her to both crimes, 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.
Hannah Sidaway OBE, a specialist lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service in the West Midlands, told the Mail's Trial+ podcast that the DNA swab was 'key' to pinning the crimes on Betro.
She said that, although police knew the DNA found on the glove and parcels was from the same person, they didn't have Betro's DNA on file because she was a US citizen and had never been arrested in the UK.
'The FBI, assisting the UK authorities, were able to track down the mother of Amy Betro living in a trailer in Wisconsin,' she said. 'They were able to obtain voluntarily a DNA sample from her.
'Fortunately, the DNA profiling system used in America is compatible with the DNA profiling used in the UK.
'We got a DNA hit from the scene of the shooting on the glove that was left in the abandoned Mercedes vehicle near to the scene. We'd also got a comparison DNA hit from the firearms component packages that were sent into Derbyshire.
'The scientists were able to take that familial DNA sample (from Ms Johnson), create a profile, and then that was sent to the UK labs who were able to compare it with the two crime scene profiles.
'Ironically, Betro's own mother was the final key to helping solve the case.'
Ms Johnson had urged her daughter to hand herself in when she went on the run following the failed hit, saying: 'If she comes here, I'm not letting her in. I will call the police. She's got to stop running. She's got to pay the price now.'
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.
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.
A video clip found on Nazir's phone shows a gun being 'tested' and also jamming - like the one Betro allegedly used later
A black glove with Betro's DNA was found inside the Mercedes used in the shooting
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 reporters from the Mail tracked her down to her bolthole 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.
