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October 20, 2025 11 mins
In 2014, Alexandria was shaken by the disappearance of a young boy named Ahmed, who vanished in front of his mother’s eyes. A massive police investigation was launched, with officers tracking suspicious vehicles and questioning relatives in search of answers. For over four months, Ahmed was shuttled between different governorates, kept in harsh conditions, while his abductors demanded ransom and even hinted at links to organ trafficking to terrify the family. The truth, when uncovered, was more shocking than anyone imagined. Behind the plot were Ahmed’s own aunt and her husband, driven by a bitter inheritance dispute. Their betrayal was exposed after a long pursuit, bringing the case to a close and revealing the devastating lengths family greed can reach.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, picture this Alexandria, Egypt. It's twenty fourteen, seven am,
and if you're standing on this quiet street in the
flicky area, it's mostly just normal morning sounds, right, shutters opening,
maybe some traffic far off, teacups clinking. For a ten
year old, omit, it's just his walk, same walk, every day,
short alone to the bus, stock routine. But the last
three mornings something felt off wrong. I'm it. He's a

(00:22):
smart kid, observant. He noticed someone, a man low cap,
sort of lurking near the corner, watching him try not
to be seen, but well failing. And then the fourth day,
that shadow it starts moving towards an Ohmed Seeson, coming closer.
As he rounds the corner, he just bolts, pure adrenaline,
sprinting for the bus stop. But his mother, she's watching
from the window upstairs, and she sees it all happen.
It's terrifying. This strange gray car pulls up fast, really suspicious,

(00:47):
no license plates at all. The man grabs Ahmed, shoves
him inside, the door slams and then silence. Well almost
the kid screams, but instantly it's just drowned out. Loud
music blasting from a cassette player in the car, just
gone right.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
That sound, the music, that's calculated. It tells you this
wasn't spontaneous, sudden, yes, but planned, using noise to cover everything.
The neighbors, they hear the mother screaming, they rush out,
But what can they tell the police.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Not much?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
A gray car, a man in a cap already vanished.
It's it's thin.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
But here's the twist, the thing that makes this even
more chilling. Even in that moment being forced into the car,
Ahmed kind of recognized the guy. It's dimly under the cap.
This wasn't random, not a stranger snatching a kid.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
And that's the piece that changes everything, doesn't it. That
flicker of recognition. It means this isn't some external threat,
not really. It means the investigation is going to lead
back somewhere deeply uncomfortable, probably right into their own circle,
the place of parents are insisting is impossible exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So today that's our mission. We're going deep into the
facts of Ahmed's four month nightmare. It's a story of
well creed, incredible denial and family betrayal that honestly, you
couldn't make up. It's beyond belief, so that the police
in Alexandria, they jump on it immediately. They check their veillance,
confirmed the car description that Gray Sadan no plates. It's real.

(02:08):
But when they talk to the parents, Ahmed's mother and father,
it's like hitting a wall. They're adamant, no enemies, no fights,
no one, absolutely no one they suspect could do this.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
And that's a huge challenge for investigators. Right from the
get go. You know, they're looking at a clearly planned crime,
but the primary victims, the parents, are convinced it has
to be strangers. Meanwhile, Ahmed, they apparently made him drink
something keep him quiet. He wakes up hours later, strange house,
totally isolated.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
And his captors. They don't waste any time. They start
laying down the fear tactic immediately. They tell this terrified
ten year old, you are kidnapped by orders of the Sheiks,
and if he disobeys, they'll kill him.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Pure psychological control right from the start, make him compliant through.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Terror, then silence for four days. Imagine the agony for
the parents. Then the phone rings three am, a strange voice,
we have your son and one million Egyptian pounds one
million egp.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Which is just a massive sum, impossible for them to
get together quickly. But honestly, the money almost seems secondary
to the threat they make. Next, this is where it
gets really dark. The voice says they're part of a
huge human organ trafficking gang, one of the biggest, and
they explicitly threaten to sell Ahmid's organs if the money
isn't paid fast. Plus the warning don't involve the police.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
That specific threat the organ harvesting. It's designed for maximum fear.
Isn't it to paralyze them? But the father incredibly makes
a brave call. He reports it tells the police immediately.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Good for him, and the police trace that call. It
confirms the kidnappers didn't stick around Alexandria. Nope, the call
came from way out in Kafrell Doller Governorate. They fled instantly.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Okay, so the police are chasing leads, thinking organ traffickers.
But then everything just stops because Ahmed himself figures it out.
After that ransom call, He's lying there, terrified in this
strange house and he hears our nearby. He hears a voice,
a voice he knows perfectly well, the person behind this horror.

(04:06):
It's his aunt, his father's own sister.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Oh my god, So that vague recognition of the man in.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
The car exactly, it clicks into place. The man in
the cap who grabbed him, that was Shahat. The aunt's
husband is a monkle in law.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
The shock for that child realizing it wasn't strangers it
was them family, it's just unimaginable, unthinkable betrayal.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
And the cruelty. It wasn't just neglect. It feels targeted.
His own aunt was horrible to him, made him sleep
on the floor, gave him spoiled food.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, that's not just keeping a hostage. That's malice. It
points to something deeply personal, some underlying resentment being acted
out on the child.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
It really does. So they could say in that first house, obviously,
communications go dark for about a week. Then they tell
all meds they're taking him home, get his hopes up.
Totally cruel. Instead, they drive for hours, leave Kafrel del Wir,
go even further away, deep into Zagazig governorate, another house,
apparently even worse, more remote. Then about three weeks in,

(04:59):
Shah's partner takes Ahmed somewhere else again, forces him to
call his dad. A desperate urgent call. Ahmed has to
say he's being tortured, that the kidney operation is happening
tomorrow unless the money arrives in hours.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
The pressure is immense. And look at the movement Alexandria
to Kafrell Dowir than Zagazig. That's jumping across governorate's It
shows planning, sophistication and avoiding being traced. The police would
recognize this as an organized group's skilled at evasion, creating
geographical noise as we sometimes call it. They're using that
terrifying organ trafficking story basically as a smokescreen for what

(05:33):
seems like a financially motivated crime. But with this incredibly
complex evasion plan, and.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
All this time the ant the sheer nerve of it.
She's calling her brother, Ahmed's dad, regularly pretending to be
worried sick, asking if the police have any leads.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Unbelievable, just the audacity, But the police are closing in slowly.
They get a break from that initial surveillance footage. The
man in the cap. He strongly resembles someone known to
hang around with hot the uncle in law. Apparently this
associate was known for always wearing a cap and let's
say questionable activities, right.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
So this connection it's getting hier. The police bring the
father in. They have to ask him directly, do you
suspect your sister? Do you suspect her husband, Shahat? And
the father still completely refuses to believe it, says it's impossible, unthinkable.
He cannot accept his own sister could be involved, especially
not in something as horrific as organ trafficking, which is

(06:29):
the threat still dominating his mind.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Wow, that denial is powerful. You wonder if the sheer
horror of the organ threat created this mental block. It's
easier to believe in a monster from outside than one
inside the family. This cognitive dissonance, it really ties the
police's hands strategically speaking exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
They realize he just can't face it yet, so they
shift tactics. They tell the father, okay, keep talking to
the gang like normal, play along. They hope to trap
them that way without forcing the father into an open
confrontation he's not ready for. Then, about two months in
the kidnappers get nervous to get about locations. They call
tell the father to bring the ransom to Port's said,

(07:08):
but almost immediately they call back. Change of plans meet
and Sinai instead.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
More geographical jumps port said than Sinai. That's four, then
five different governorates. They've dragged this through.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
They're definitely feeling the heat, trying to confuse any police surveillance.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Desperate moves, and then the exchange attempt basically falls apart.
The father has to admit, look, I've only got two
hundred thousand AGP, not the million. It's all I could
raise the kidnappers. They flip out threaten to kill Ahmed
right then, and then they send a video. Oh no, yeah,
he shows Ahmed. He's crying, hysterical, begging his parents to
pay the money, talking of the operation. And you know

(07:43):
who's standing just off camera coaching him, telling him what
to say. The aunt in Shahan is aunt and shahat
that video, that's just pete cruelty, an absolute proof. So
after three incredibly long months, the police team is practically
living this case. They're hitting locations in three different provinces
where they think Ahmed might be, but every time.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
They've just missed him. The place is empty, recently abandoned.
They know they're close, but always a step behind.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
They finally have enough concrete evidence no question, it's the
ant and Shahat. They bring the father in again, lay
it all out, irrefutable proof.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
And still still he struggles. He clings to this idea
that maybe his sister's being forced, maybe she's being blackmailed
by the real organ traffickers. He just can't make that
final leap. And then another layer gets at it. The
father learns that Shahat, his brother in law, is a
heavy drug addict, and then he was using drugs openly
right there in front of Ahmed and even in front

(08:37):
of his own children during the whole four months.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
That's a critical piece. It shifts the motive slightly, doesn't it,
from purely calculated greed to perhaps something more chaotic desperation
fueled by addiction, needing money for drugs, Shahat's addiction, his influence,
combined with whatever resentment the aunt already had, it sounds
like that's what tip her over into this truly destructive.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Plans like it. So four months and one week passed,
then a breakthrough, a solid tip. Sha Hot's been spotted.
He's working at a coacherie shop, of all places, in el.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Mark, elm Marks. That's Province number six. They dragged that
poor child through six different regions of Egypt.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Six unbelievable. The end finally comes after four months and
twenty two days. Police hit the coachery shop, arrest Shahat
on the spot. At the exact same time, another team
raids the house where the aunt is. They arrest her
and they find Ahmed. They rescue him, tell them straight away,
you're safe. We're taking you back to Alexandria, back home.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
And the motive after all that complexity, the Oregon trafficking line,
the constant moving, what was it really about? Interrogation, they
confess the whole thing, the six province run, the terror
of the lies. It was all cooked up over inheritance,
Alworth inheritance and the ironies. Absolutely gut wrench. The aunt
found out later that the inheritance issues she was so

(09:53):
obsessed about the ones driving this whole nightmare. She could
have sorted them out easily just by talking to her brother,
Ahmed's dad. It was a faailable to Wow. She chose
this path, followed her attict husband's lead based on bad information,
maybe greed, maybe a resentment, and inflicted this trauma on
her own nephew for nothing.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
It just highlights the destructive power of unresolved family conflict,
doesn't it. You have the father's agony having to testify
against his own sister, and then you have the aunt
apparently brazenly saying she did it to defend her inheritance. Wow,
the three of them, the aunt, Shahat, and that partner
who helped arrested charge brought to trial. So let's just
boil it down. A seven am walk turns into a nightmare,

(10:35):
A fake one million EGP demand backed by a terrifying
organ harvesting threat, a desperate chase across six different governorates,
and the engine behind it all a bitter, selfish dispute
over family inheritance.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah. What really gets me is how something within a family,
something that should be about connection, can curdle into such
extreme malice. Sibling resentment, addiction, misinformation, all converging to inflict
this incredible trauma on a child caught in the middle.
It's a chilling look at the darker side of human nature.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Really, so thinking about this, what does it mean for you? Listening?
We saw Ahmed's father trapped in denial for four months, right,
unable to believe the threat came from within, needing it
to be some outside monster, right.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
So the question I'm left with is this, Considering that
deep protective denial, even when the evidence starts piling up,
what does it actually take? What does it take for
any of us to finally accept the worst, the most
unthinkable truth about someone we love, even when the facts
are staring us right in the face.
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