Hitwoman in a hijab who 'botched British murder attempt' is 'arrested in Armenia' after international manhunt

2 July 2024, 19:24 | Updated: 2 July 2024, 19:27

An American woman who is accused of flying to Birmingham to carry out a contract killing disguised in a hijab has been arrested in Armenia.

Aimee Betro, 44, is accused of accepting a job kill Sikander Ali, a clothes boutique owner, on the orders of business rival Mohammed Aslam, 56, and his son Mohammed Nazir, 30.

But the weapon jammed as she attempted to gun down Mr Ali in the street on Measham Grove, Acocks Green on September 7, 2019.

She is said to have fled back to the US after a second attempt - and in a bizarre twist has now been arrested in a rented flat on the outskirts of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

Local police arrested Betro in Yerevan, in a dawn raid that saw her led away in cuffs, MailOnline reported.

She now faces being extradited back to the UK to face British justice for the assassination attempt she is accused of.

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After her first attempt at killing, the would-be hitwoman returned in a taxi to the Birmingham property and fired three shots before texting Mr Ali’s father Aslat Mahamud: “Stop playing hide and seek” and “Where are you hiding?”

She flew back to the United States two days after the failed killing.

Nazir and Aslam were found guilty of conspiracy to murder earlier this year, after Birmingham Crown Court was told they had held a grudge against Mr Ali’s family following a violent dispute at his boutique clothing store in Birmingham on July 21, 2018.

Nazir was also convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, illegally importing firearms and perverting the course of justice. They will be sentenced in August.

Kevin Hegarty KC, prosecuting, told jurors that a Mercedes was driven into Measham Grove and parked before Mr Ali pulled up in an Audi outside another address.

He said: "As he did the would-be assassin came from the driver's side of the Mercedes.

"It was a woman. As she left the Mercedes she left the driver's door open.

"She walked quite calmly towards Sikander Ali and was pointing a gun at him at head height.

"As she got closer to Sikander Ali he saw her and he saw the gun and she pulled the trigger to fire the gun at him.

"Mercifully and luckily for him the gun jammed. He quickly reversed his car striking the open door of the Mercedes.

"The would-be assassin then ran back to the Mercedes and started to drive away.

"As she did so she tried to close the driver's door but could not do so.

"She did not drive very far away and she abandoned the Mercedes, where it was later found, and she called a taxi just before 9p."

"She did not drive very far away and she abandoned the Mercedes, where it was later found, and she called a taxi just before 9pm.

"Mr Hegarty said in the early hours of the following morning the woman called the same firm and took a taxi to Measham Grove again.

He added: "She took out a gun, it may have been the same gun."She took aim and fired three shots in the direction of the house before returning to the waiting taxi."

Jurors heard Betro had bought the Mercedes from a dealer in Birmingham after flying from Chicago to Manchester, via Atlanta, on August 22 – 16 days before the shooting

Before flying back to the US, Betro had contacted Virgin airlines and tried to change the flight documents so that Nazir could fly back with her but failed.

Now, it has emerged that Betro, is a cocktail-sipping former administrator for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team who was said to have snapped a selfie with a devil horn effect a day before she tried to murder the family.

Det Insp Matt Marston, from West Midlands Police, said: “Aslam and Nazir were determined to take revenge following a fallout where they were injured.

“The lengths they went to in trying to make sure they weren’t implicated in pulling the trigger are immense.”

A police spokesman added: “That nobody died as a result of Aslam and Nazir’s actions is through nothing other than sheer good fortune.

“As a police service, we will do everything we can to target those who aim to bring these weapons into our communities, and bring them to justice.”