Bungling Trio Jailed After Anti-Semitic Kidnap Plot

Kidnappers Jailed After Bungled, Ideologically-Driven Plot to Abduct Israeli Musician

By Jason King

Three men who meticulously plotted the kidnapping of an Israeli DJ—arming themselves with handcuffs, zip ties, and the sedative ketamine—have been jailed after their plan fell apart in what the judge described as an act of “staggering incompetence.”

Faiz Shah, 23, Mohammad Comrie, 23, and Elijah Ogunnubi-Sime, 20, spent weeks discussing their scheme online, detailing how they would lure composer Itay Kashti to a remote cottage in Wales under the guise of a music industry event. They created a fake identity—“Lucas Winslow,” an A&R executive from Polydor Records—sent professional-sounding invitations, and promised a lucrative opportunity. Kashti, believing he was attending a legitimate songwriting retreat, accepted.

The trio booked an Airbnb near Llanybydder for a week and stocked it with supplies for a prolonged captivity. They had a clear objective: extract a ransom from Kashti, whom they assumed to be wealthy, while also targeting him for his Jewish heritage and presumed political affiliations.

Reality Collides with Fantasy

Their plan fell apart the moment it collided with reality. The taxi driver who dropped Kashti at the cottage helped him carry his equipment inside—walking straight into the ambush. The attackers, masked and gloved, turned on him. He managed to escape and raise the alarm.

Kashti was not so lucky. He was handcuffed to a radiator, kicked, punched, and threatened with death if he tried to escape. Yet even here, their grasp of real-world practicalities faltered: the kidnappers failed to notice that Kashti could slide along the pipe. He freed himself, grabbed his phone, and fled into the bushes, where he called his wife.

By the time police arrived, the gang had scattered across nearby fields, abandoning the supplies and fraudulent documents they had left inside the cottage. They were quickly rounded up.

Online Planning, Real-World Ineptitude

The men had spent hours in encrypted Telegram chats refining their plan, which they codenamed “The Lick.” They had discussed how to make their scam appear professional, created false identities, and planned to launder the ransom money into cryptocurrency. One message read:

“All three of us have complete, 100 per cent faith in Allah so we can’t fail.”

But they had failed—on every level. At Swansea Crown Court, Judge Catherine Richards noted the contrast between their extensive online planning and their complete ineptitude when faced with the practicalities of crime. She said their plot was “highly sophisticated in its planning, but highly amateurish in its execution.”

All three admitted kidnapping. Comrie, from Leeds, Shah, from Bradford, and Ogunnubi-Sime, from London, were each sentenced to eight years and one month, with Ogunnubi-Sime serving his time in a young offenders’ institution.

Victim’s Ordeal and Trauma

For Kashti, the trauma was profound.

“As an Israeli, this was my own personal October 7,” he said in a statement via the Community Security Trust (CST). He described how, as he lay restrained, thoughts of the Holocaust and the six million Jewish lives lost flashed through his mind. He has been left with lasting anxiety and questioned whether he can continue his career in the music industry.

Mark Gardner, chief executive of the CST, said:

“The combination of criminality and anti-Jewish hatred could easily have resulted in a far worse, perhaps even fatal outcome.”

Police: “An Extraordinary Crime”

Dyfed Powys Police called it an “extraordinary crime.”

Inspector Gareth Jones said:

“This sentence today reflects the severity of this offence and the ordeal the victim suffered – and we hope it gives the victim a sense of justice.”

A Dangerous Delusion

The case exposed a chilling reality: three young men, immersing themselves in an online world where kidnapping and extortion were treated as if they were a daring mission rather than a high-stakes crime with tragic consequences.

Their sentences reflect the reality they failed to grasp: their victim was not a symbol, but a man—and their act was not a radical protest, but a poorly executed and severely criminal act.

Well, that’s all for now. But until our next article, please stay tuned, stay informed, but most of all stay safe, and I’ll see you then.

Jason King

Birmingham City-Desk

Twitter (X) @JasonKingNews

Jasonkingnews@gmail.com