This article was produced in collaboration with Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records.
At around 4:30am on April 12, 2023, Roger* pulled out of a driveway in Queens, New York. A man dressed in a hoodie then ran up to Roger’s vehicle and fired three times into the passenger side. Roger sped off unharmed, and the gunman continued to fire at the back of the car.
A few weeks later, Roger brushed with death again. As he and a second person drove towards an intersection around 11:00pm, another car pulled in front of them. While it blocked the road, a gunman approached the vehicle and unloaded four shots at the car. Again, Roger was not hit.
Weeks later, as Roger pulled off a southbound interstate in the Bronx, a second vehicle pulled up alongside him. A passenger extended their arm out of the window, and fired multiple shots at Roger with a handgun. This time, he was hit. He drove away to escape and was later treated for multiple gunshot wounds.
These attempted hits weren’t necessarily organized by assassins meeting at some gangster hangout. They were largely done on Instagram and Telegram.
“65k for anyone who put [the Victim] in a wheelchair,” one message posted to Instagram read, referring to Roger. Another message, this time from a Telegram account, wrote that they had “$150k on [the Victim’s] head” according to a recently unsealed court record.
The court record provides insight into how some alleged modern murder-for-hire rings operate using a combination of cryptocurrency and social media to plan, coordinate, and finance their crimes. A man called Mehdi “Mikey” Ahmed is charged with murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in personal injury, and conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion. Ahmed has fled the United States for Dubai, according to the court record.
The complaint is focused primarily on Ahmed but also says that “others known and unknown, knowingly combined, conspired, [and] confederated” on the alleged crimes. Specifically, the complaint says that a person identified as “CC-1” ran a Telegram channel called “Most Hated NYC.” This channel posted various messages advertising cannabis products for sale, the court record says. CC-1 hired the gunmen to murder the victim, the record says. Ahmed allegedly exchanged messages with CC-1 and conspired with them.
In December, the account posted a message suggesting that someone had cheated the account owner out of $300,000. The account then named Roger specifically in another message. The specifics of the apparent disagreement with Roger aren’t included in the court record, but after March 2023, the Telegram and Instagram account posted the messages looking for people to put Roger “in a wheelchair” and the other offering $150,000.
Ahmed allegedly reached out to the account owner in February 2023, asking if “You got any work for me to do.” Ahmed added “Need to make some quick bread,” according to the court record. Ahmed also allegedly said they knew who installed security cameras in Roger’s home, and offered to see if he could have someone he knows access them.
The court record also alleges that the Toyota used to block Roger’s path in one of the murder attempts was registered to Ahmed’s significant other, and alleges Ahmed “directly and personally participated in the attempted murder of the Victim on or about May 6, 2023 by using a Toyota sedan to block the car in which the Victim was a passenger, so that a shooter could take multiple shots at the Victim at close range.” Some of this evidence comes from Instagram messages, in which Ahmed says “My girl white and clean Toyota so drives always safe.”
Cellphone data provided by T-Mobile put Ahmed’s cellphone in the vicinity of those first two murder attempts, the court document says.
On May 7, 2023, after one of the shootings, an account the feds allege Ahmed’s cellphone was linked to sent Roger an Instagram message saying “I was on ya block tonight for s you got lucky twice really thought it was gonna happen tonight but fuck it another day.” They threatened Roger’s parents and then demanded an extortion fee paid in cryptocurrency.
“Send me 5k worth of btc if you dont wanna get shot at again,” the Instagram message read. “Cause i promise you next time its gone include ya parents.”
After that, Ahmed appears to have learned that authorities were investigating him. On Instagram he told multiple people “What am i hearing about the feds after me”; “Yo bro are the feds building a case on me?”; “the feds are buikding [sic] a crazy case against me”; and “Idek bro im boutta leave to my country bro.”
On May 25, 2023, Ahmed flew from Newark International Airport to Dubai, according to the court record.
404 Media could not reach Ahmed for comment. 404 Media could not reach Ahmed for comment. Instagram acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide a statement in time for publication. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.
On May 29, 2023, Ahmed sent an Instagram message that said they were “Jus chillin the feds looking into me.”
*The victim is identified in the court record as the “Victim” in the court record. For ease of readability and understanding, 404 Media has given this person a pseudonym.
