A captivating narrative unfolds as a Dubai-registered private jet, with frequent routes between Cairo and its base in Dubai, takes center stage in a rapidly unfolding tale that spans East Africa and the Gulf.
The story emerged with dramatic intensity following the interception of a cache of currency and weaponry at Lusaka’s primary airport this past Sunday, hinting at connections that reach far and wide.
According to madamasr.com, The jet, departing from Cairo International Airport on Sunday and apparently bearing on board around 127 kg of gold ingots, US$5.7 million in cash, and several firearms, arrived in the evening to Kenneth Kaunda International Airport where it was seized by Zambian authorities.
Also on board were six Egyptian nationals who are currently being held by the Zambian Drug Enforcement Commission. Five Zambian nationals have also been arrested.
Though Egyptian authorities are yet to make an official comment on the incident, data shows that a majority of the seized jet’s flights are either into or out of Egypt, while reporting in a number of outlets has alleged that one of the Egyptians has ties to the Armed Forces and that other detainees have links to the gold industry.
Here’s what we know so far.
After the seizure of the plane on Sunday, Zambian authorities announced that nearly $5.7 million, five pistols, seven magazines and over a hundred rounds of ammunition, as well as 602 pieces of suspected gold and gold measuring equipment were seized. A Zambian minister said Tuesday that the suspected gold was in fact a variety of less precious metals coated in gold.
Six Egyptian nationals and five Zambian nationals have been arrested in relation to the incident, while Zambia’s Drug Enforcement Commission also announced that individuals of Dutch, Latvian and Spanish nationality have also been detained.
Egyptian authorities are yet to make an official comment, though two official sources were quoted in the press denying Egypt’s involvement.
An Egyptian official told the government-run Middle East News Agency on Wednesday that the plane only “transited inside Cairo International Airport and was inspected to ensure that it complied with all safety and security rules.”
However, a former Civil Aviation Ministry official told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that, given the plane was a private jet, its baggage would not have been searched if it had transited through Cairo.
The official quoted in MENA added that Egyptian and Zambian authorities are cooperating to find out the truth about the incidents.
Otherwise, coverage inside Egypt has been limited. While the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm and intelligence-affiliated Cairo24 news outlets initially broke the story, the reports were later taken down, while a journalist who works at a state-owned newspaper who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity said they had been given instructions not to publish about the incident.
Despite the silence inside Egypt, data relating to the seized jet shows that it was frequently inside the country.
Independent fact-checking platform Matsada2sh identified the seized jet as the T7-WSS, registered in San Marino and operated by FlyingGroup Middle East, based in the Dubai Airport Freezone. The company is the regional branch of FlyingGroup, a Belgium-based service provider which offers airplane management, rental, and maintenance.
By reviewing flight data via the tracking website flightradar24, Mada Masr was able to establish that a majority of the jet’s flights began or terminated in Egypt while it also undertook regular flights to other countries in the region. For example, the jet transited on November 23 from Cairo to Tel Aviv, where it stayed for six hours before continuing to Doha and returning to Cairo seven hours later.
The plane’s owner remains unidentified and listed as “private” on flight tracking services.
T7-WSS undertook its first flight to Sub-Saharan Africa on June 30, traveling from Cairo to New Alamein, then to Tanzania for eight days, followed by Dubai and finally heading back to Cairo.
Navigational data from the ADS-B Exchange shows that the plane left Amman on the evening of August 12, arriving at Cairo International Airport at midnight. It stayed there for 11 hours before leaving for Zambia the next morning.
Of the six Egyptian nationals who were on board the T7-WSS and were arrested in Lusaka, five of them were named in a report by a legal firm of which Mada Masr obtained a copy on Thursday and which requests that the Drug Enforcement Commission release them on the grounds that none of them were crew members and that they are currently being held in Zambia without charge.
Their names, as listed in the document, are Michael Adel Michel Botros, Walid Refat Fahimi Botros Abelsayed, Yasser Mokhtar Abelghafor Elshishtawy, Mounir Shaker Gerges Awad and Mohammed Abdelhak Mohammed Gouda.
According to unconfirmed information published by the independent fact-checking platform Matsada2sh, Michael Adel Botros owns Amstone International Limited, a British corporation that consults with military forces on defense development. Mohammed Abdelhak, the fact-checking platform alleged, worked as an assistant military attache at the Egyptian embassy in Washington DC during 2011 and 2012. His was a major in the Egyptian military at the time. Mounir Awad, meanwhile, Matsada2sh claimed, is a gold trader who owns a jewelry factory called Shaker Gold Factory Genius Gold.
“Four Zambian businessmen namely, Sedrick Kasanda, Jim Belemu, Oswald Diangamo and commercial pilot Patrick Kawanu have been arrested,” said the Zambian New Diggers outlet on Thursday, while the identity of the fifth arrested Zambian national, South African businessman Mcebisi Mlonzi was also announced on Friday.
Sources quoted by News Diggers said that Kassanda — who the outlet described as the mastermind of the operation — “attempted to flee the country but was cornered before he entered the Democratic Republic of Congo. A background check reportedly shows that Kassanda has previously been involved in controversial gold deals and was arrested by South African Police in 2017. If you check his profile and his pictures, this is what he does for a living actually, he transacts minerals.”
Mlonzi, the fifth Zambian detainee, was described by News Diggers as the co-mastermind. “Mlonzi is the one who knows the Egyptians and the other foreigners who came into the country. He is the one who connected them to the Zambian guy, Kasanda. He told them that Kasanda had the connection that could help them have a safe landing and transact without being inconvenienced,” a source explained to News Diggers.
“As for the pilot,” the sources added, “he was picked because he brought himself and the small Zambian plane in the picture during the operation.”
Belemu, meanwhile, is the CEO of Zambian regional carrier Mahogany Air and a local representative of a South African company called TFM, but News Diggers note that, aside from the fact that the arrested pilot, Kawanu, worked for Mahogany Air, it is not clear how Belemu is connected to the airport scandal.
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