Why did Zambia intercept a mysterious jet carrying money, weapons, and metals?
An Egyptian journalist who was afterwards detained discovered information about the flight paths and occupants of the aircraft.
just for illustration. The fast-moving
corporate Bombardier appeared to soar freely through several sites.
Karim Asaad, an investigative journalist working for the Egyptian fact-checking portal matsada2sh, got to work after a mystery plane was intercepted on August 14 in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.
What he discovered was a convoluted network of passengers on a flight with a dubious flight path, stopping recently at Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Tel Aviv, Israel; Cairo, Egypt; and Benghazi and Tripoli, Libya.
Asaad was detained by Egyptian officials on August 19 at his residence in the eastern Cairo neighbourhood of al-Shorouk.
Security personnel allegedly threatened Asaad's child while assaulting Asaad's wife, according to Matsada2sh.
He has subsequently been freed, but why did the information make the Egyptian security forces feel so threatened? What you need to know about the enigmatic jet, its passengers, and its cargo is as follows:
Where did the plane originate?
The high-speed corporate Bombardier plane left a trail of unusual flight patterns that looked to cross numerous places freely, according to open-source data and online flight trackers used by matsada2sh.
The data suggests that the aircraft was registered in San Marino and was flown by a Dubai office that was affiliated with an Antwerp, Belgium-based aircraft leasing company. FlightAware, the largest flight tracking platform in the world, has been ordered by the owner of the aircraft not to track its trips and to keep flight data private.
Why did it leave?
In two years, the aircraft appears to have flown 361 times roundtrip, frequently into and out of Cairo, to a variety of locations.
Even within days of one another, it scheduled flights to Tripoli and Benghazi, the two cities located on opposite sides of the continuing crisis in Libya.
Another time, it departed from Cairo and made stops in Tel Aviv and Doha, Qatar, before making its way back to the Egyptian capital.
The aircraft, which had originated in Amman, Jordan and had spent the previous night in Cairo, was stopped on August 14, 2023, at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka.
Who was in the aircraft?
13 persons, including six Egyptians, four Zambians, as well as others from Latvia, the Netherlands, and Spain have so far been detained by Zambian authorities in connection with the jet.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has said everyone involved in the scam at the Lusaka airport will be arrested and prosecuted
Details about some of those people, including information about a well-known tycoon and less well-known people with a dubious business history across Europe and the Middle East, have been made public by Matsada2sh.
Shadrick Kasanda, a Zambian national known as "the man of gold" and "Mr Money," who frequently posted images and videos of himself near to substantial sums of what appeared to be gold, was one of those who was reasonably simple to locate information on.
Others include a police lieutenant in the Egyptian Ministry of Interior and an Egyptian army major who for a brief period worked at the Egyptian embassy in the US capital.
Michael Adel Botros, a 42-year-old Egyptian national living in Qatar, was also listed by Matsada2sh as a passenger. Michael Adel Botros is included on the British government's registration as a passenger. He is the director of Gemstone International Limited, which, according to its website, has offices in the United States, Egypt, Poland, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and France and provides a wide spectrum of cutting-edge defence equipment.
What was carried on board?
The Zambian Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) boarded the aircraft on August 14, the day following the plane's arrival in Zambia.
A chartered aeroplane carrying dangerous commodities landed at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on August 13, 2023, at 19:00, the DEC said in a statement.
The following day, DEC reportedly seized five weapons, seven magazines, and more than 100 rounds of ammunition in addition to more than $5.5 million that was hidden in bags and crates.
More than 600 pieces of what was initially thought to be gold were discovered, which was a further twist. But upon closer examination, it was discovered that the pieces were primarily made of copper and zinc alloy.