The Kingpin Who Kidnapped Migrants for Ransom
An Eritrean trafficker promised to help Africans desperate to reach Europe—then brutalized them inside a Libyan compound while extorting their families back home. With his fortune, he partied in Dubai.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/13/the-kingpin-who-kidnapped-migrants-for-ransom
The boss warned his captives, “It’s going to cost me about ten dinars”—seven dollars—“to kill you.” This was the price of a muslin sheet that the guards used to wrap corpses before burying them in the desert.
The boss was one of the most notorious human traffickers in Africa. He was known universally by his first name: Kidane.