About twenty days ago, the Syrian young man, Mohamed Emad Al-Khalaf, a 27-year-old, was kidnapped by a gang that lured him through the "TikTok" app with a fake advertisement for travel to Europe via Beirut airport, attempting to obtain a ransom while threatening to kill him if his family did not pay $25,000. Subsequently, videos circulated on social media showing Mohamed being tortured, electrocuted, stripped, and brutally beaten, which the kidnappers sent to his family.
According to a relative who preferred not to be named (for reasons related to Mohamed's and his family's security), "Mohamed was lured by a gang that convinced him through TikTok that it would secure his travel to Germany in exchange for $7,500 to be paid upon his arrival in Europe." He added in statements to "Al Arabiya.net / Al Hadath.net" that the young man had been working at a food company on the street of Mount Lebanon Hospital, residing in a room at the factory belonging to the company.
The relative pointed out that about twenty days ago, he received a call from someone who told him to come to the hospital street and to bring his passport as a final step to complete the travel paperwork before heading to Germany. Since that day, Mohamed has disappeared and ended up in the hands of the gang. He mentioned that "two days after his disappearance, the family received video clips from his phone number and via his account on Messenger showing him being tortured, and the kidnappers demanded $25,000 for his release, otherwise he would be killed if we did not comply with their demand within the specified period."
The relative emphasized that "Mohamed followed more than 20 accounts on TikTok that promote travel offers from Lebanon to Europe for financial amounts, and the gang that kidnapped him manages one of these pages, convincing him that they could get him out of Lebanon through the airport in cooperation with an office belonging to one of the United Nations agencies, which encouraged Mohamed to agree, for a fee of $7,500." However, after the torture videos of Mohamed circulated on social media and followers engaged with his case, the kidnappers contacted his family demanding the videos be deleted and threatening to kill him because of the news of his kidnapping.
Additionally, the relative clarified that negotiations with the kidnappers are ongoing, stating, "We managed, through mediators from the Wadi Khaled area in Akkar, northern Lebanon, to reduce the amount to $10,000 instead of $25,000, which we will secure from relatives and friends, and we were promised his release tomorrow, Tuesday, unless something unexpected happens."
Sources familiar with Mohamed's case reported that "his family, in addition to Syrian activists, have informed the Internal Security Forces about what happened, who asked them to file a complaint at the nearest police station as stipulated by law in Lebanon. However, this did not happen because Mohamed entered Lebanon two years ago illegally and does not have legal residency documents."
Mohamed's relative explained that "this legal loophole motivated kidnapping rings to practice their activities without fear of security pursuit, and most of their victims are Syrian refugees who do not possess legal residency papers, making their families susceptible to extortion, as they know they cannot report them. What happened to Mohamed has been repeated with five Syrian refugees earlier."
Last summer, the Internal Security Forces warned in a statement about kidnapping networks that lure their victims from Syrians to the Lebanese-Syrian border through various means, including social media pages, especially the "TikTok" app, by creating fake accounts used in the luring operations, during which victims are led to believe that they can provide them with entry visas to EU countries.
### The "Masters of the Borders" Gang
While these gangs continue their activities in kidnapping and human trafficking, taking advantage of the loose borders between Lebanon and Syria, special information obtained by "Al Arabiya.net" revealed that the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Syrian refugees is known as (Sh.A) (which Mohamed's relative confirmed). He manages, alongside involved gang members from both Lebanese and Syrian backgrounds, various types of kidnappings, including recently via TikTok, as well as trafficking people to and from Lebanon and Syria. They are known as the "Masters of the Borders" between Lebanon and Syria.
Furthermore, the information confirmed that the said (Sh.A) runs kidnapping operations from the area of (Im Haratin) inside Syrian territory, about 8 kilometers away from Wadi Khaled (within Lebanese territory), but the financial ransom is paid in Wadi Khaled in Akkar.
