Gangs sell, buy victims in Lebanon, hold them in Syria 53 cases since January, with perpetrators using social media to ‘lure victims, claiming they can help with emigration’ BEIRUT: Lebanon’s security forces have warned citizens and residents that there has been a rise in kidnappings in the country, with perpetrators seeking large sums of money for the safe return of their victims. The General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces, or ISF, said that these gangs have been using social media to lure their victims, often through ads on TikTok, claiming they can help with emigration applications. The gangs are mostly active in the Baalbek-Hermel area and on the Lebanese-Syrian border, but also operate deep in Syrian territory. A security source told Arab News that between Jan. 1 and April 20, the security services in Lebanon recorded 53 cases of kidnapping in Lebanon. A few days ago, the Lebanese army’s intelligence officers managed to liberate local businessman Akram Jomaa seven hours after he was kidnapped in the town of Lala in the western Bekaa. The kidnappers had fled with him to the Baalbek-Hermel area in the northern part of Bekaa and tried to sell him to another gang. They demanded that his family pay a ransom for his return, but he was eventually released between the towns of Dar Al-Waseah and Bouday, in the vicinity of Baalbek. The army’s intelligence officers also managed to free Sadiq Roli, an Egyptian national working for the Al-Sabbah Media Corporation, after he had been detained by his kidnappers for about a month and a half. On April 16, unidentified gunmen intercepted a car transporting Roli and crew members of a TV company filming a series in Baalbek, near the town of Brital on the Baalbek-Hermel road. They fired at the car to stop, and kidnapped Roli, while the other passenger managed to escape. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of more than $1 million in exchange for his release but at midnight on Tuesday, Roli’s kidnappers released him in Baalbek. Hassan Atoui, 32, was kidnapped by two Syrian men who sold him to a gang for LBP3 million ($1,975.50). Atoui was kidnapped in early April in the town of Nabatiyeh, south of Lebanon, after returning home from working in an African country. Atoui had communicated via social media with a travel agency based in the Hermel region, which had offered to process a visa to the US in exchange for a sum of money. He agreed to meet the person who claimed he was running the agency, but was subsequently ambushed by unknown persons who took him to the Baalbek-Hermel area where they sold him to another gang. They also stole the money he had in his possession. The new gang demanded his relatives pay a ransom of $25,000 in exchange for his release, and sent his family video footage of him being beaten up. The family’s attorney, Ashraf Al-Moussawi, told Arab News: “The Baalbek-Hermel region is witnessing an unprecedented state of security chaos.” “There are organized gangs that include fugitives and others that have been formed recently, and find it easy to earn money through kidnappings, in the absence of (security provided by the) state.” “I have noticed that many gangs are now using women, mostly related to gang members, whom they train … to lure victims and blackmail them.” “The security services know the members of these gangs by name … some of them have no previous arrest warrants against them, which means that they are new to the world of kidnapping and crime, but are making a lot of money through this.” Despite the successful release of some victims, no kidnappers have yet been arrested, with the exception of three women suspected of being involved in Jomaa’s kidnapping. The security source noted: “Some of these kidnapping schemes are clever, but what is most dangerous, is that these gangs gather a lot of information about their victims, and have many accomplices helping them in various regions.” “The security services know the members of these gangs by name but cannot arrest them because they are hiding inside Syrian territory (from where they) are running their operations.” The source said Roli was taken into Syrian territory, and Jomaa would have ended up there as well. Meanwhile, the source said Lebanese citizen George Mufrej, who was the first person to be kidnapped by these gangs, while he was traveling on the road to Beirut airport, was transferred by his kidnappers to Syrian territory and is still missing. The border areas in the Hermel region with Syria are not subject to state control, as illegal crossings for smuggling abound, along with those controlled by Hezbollah, which have multiplied since the war began in Syria. The source said that the Lebanese security services have been placing pressure on the families of the kidnappers to force their sons to comply. “We need to use the same methods they are using, perhaps it would help in freeing the kidnappees,” said the source. “Roli and Jomaa have been released thanks to this method; we detained the mothers of the kidnappers, raided their homes, and forced the families to contact them and tell them to let the kidnappees go,” said the source. “The kidnappers did not like the taste of their own medicine and have been threatening the army intelligence official in the area, Col. Mohammed Al-Amin,” he explained. The source estimated the age of the kidnappers to range between 25 and 35 years of age. “These people will one day have to come back from Syria to their homes in the Al-Sharwana neighborhood in Baalbek and Dar Al-Waseah. Some are from the Jaafar, Zeaiter, Mardi, and Saab families, and we will be waiting for them when they return.” The source noted that they have cooperated with the Syrian army where necessary. “We will tirelessly continue pressuring these gangs. This is the only way to get to them and curb their crimes,” said the source. “We are doing the best we can with the available capabilities; stopping kidnappers is a priority but we have a million tasks … every day, and fighting terrorism is one of them.”