Organised Crime Group sentenced to a total of 116 years for a Cardiff k*dnap

Nine men have been jailed following the kidnap of a Cardiff man.

The case has been described as is one of the UK’s most complicated kidnap investigations in recent times.

At around 4.30pm on Friday, December 11, 2020, a 22-year-old man was taken from Clifton Street, Splott, to Odet Court in Pendwyallt Road, Whitchurch.

Unbeknown to him, a kidnap plan was already underway by an Organised Crime Group to extort money from him, and his friends, which involved holding them at gun and knife point, and included the demand of a £50k ransom payment to ensure his safe return.

At 7.57pm that day South Wales Police received a 999-call and the force’s Major Crime Investigation Team launched an investigation.

The victim, who was known to a member of the London-based gang, was then transported to a separate location in Hemel Hempstead, England where he continued to be beaten, handcuffed, kept at knife point and under threat of a viciously trained attack dog.

As a result of a joint investigation with several police forces and the National Crime Agency, the victim was safely rescued from the address in Hemel Hempstead at 11.30pm on Saturday, December 12.

Immediate prison sentence total 116 years.

Six of the nine have been given extended sentences amounting to 22 years for the danger they pose to the public.

This means should they commit any further offences during the extended sentence period, at the end of their time in prison, they will return to prison to serve the remainder of their initial custodial sentence.

Convicted of kidnap, false imprisonment, and blackmail are:

Fortune Lawson, 27, from Ealing, London. 25 years in prison plus 5 years extended sentence. (Lawson was also sentenced for his part in a second kidnap and blackmail case in London in 2018).

Davood Assadopour, 32, from Harrow, London. 15 years in prison plus 4 years extended sentence.
Micaiah Marley, 30, from Watford, 15 years in prison plus 4 years extended sentence.

Arnold Fumumeya, 27, from Harrow, London. 13 years in prison plus 3 years extended sentence.
Alexis Mutesa, 27, from Brent, London. 13 years in prison plus 3 years extended sentence.

Gideon Lawson, 24, from London. 12 years in prison plus 3 years extended sentence.
Ahmed Omar, 29, from Mitcham, Surrey. 9 years in prison.

Also, Denis Delishaj, 24, from Harrow, London, convicted of blackmail. 8 years in prison, plus 8 months for possession of an illicit phone while in prison awaiting trial.

Stephen Isaac, 66, from Hemel Hempstead, convicted of kidnap and false imprisonment. 6 years.

During the investigation weapons including six knives, five live rounds of ammunition, a handgun, a grenade smoke bomb, and a taser disguised as a mobile telephone were seized.

Detectives recovered more than 400 hours of CCTV from across 5 Police Force areas and took more than 1,000 statements.

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