CAIRO: The Cairo Airport Authorities captured a criminal organization, trafficking youth who pose as sports contestants at the cost of LE 70,000 per person.
While finishing boarding procedures on an Italian Airlines filght headed for Rome, Lieutenant Colonel Ehab Salam and Major Ibrahim Hammouda grew suspicious of a kickboxing team allegedly from a Sports Academy in El-Sharqiya because their ages and physical statures did not match that of the athletes.
Brigadier General Mohamed Kamal, director of the public funds prosecution, was notified and the suspects were detained for questioning. During the investigation, the seven “team members confessed to paying LE 70,000 and posing as kickboxing athletes in an attempt to enter Europe using their valid visas, which they were granted on the pretext of participating in a training camp in Estonia.
The plan was for the group to escape from their stopover at Rome International Airport, as they waited a day in transit for their next flight.
Officials quickly discovered that the head of the training mission, two trainers and a managerial clerk, were all accomplices in the plot.
They all confessed that the head of the Academy was the mastermind behind this scheme, saying he tricked foreign embassies into giving the alleged athletes visas after providing the required credentials and paperwork.
The group is in police custody pending investigation.
