Officers arrested 17 key operatives, including the syndicate’s alleged kingpin, Mohamed Tahir Aden, known by the moniker “Werdi.” The sweeping crackdown shuttered one of the most ruthless criminal enterprises operating along the Horn of Africa’s notorious eastern migration corridor. The video footage was then sent directly to relatives in Ethiopia to terrorize them into paying steep ransoms, according to officials. The ring amassed nearly $6.2 million through ransom payments, laundering the proceeds into real estate and high-value physical assets. Just months earlier, in April, Ethiopian police broke up another major ring responsible for trafficking thousands of migrants toward Europe via Libya.