Dating-App Romance Ends in failed assassination plot: U.S woman convicted in U.K
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A 45-year-old American woman has been found guilty in the UK of conspiracy to murder, and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.
Aimee Betro, of West Allis City in Wisconsin, worked as an administrator for the Milwaukee Brewers major league baseball team. She had no significant crime record to speak of.
In 2018, a fight broke out at Noreen Seher Boutique, a clothing boutique in Alum Rock, Birmingham England, between a father and son, Mohammed Aslam and Mohammed Nazir, and store owner, Aslat Mahumad.
Mohammed Aslam, 59, and his son, Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, are both from Derby, just under an hours drive from Birmingham.
The incident landed Aslat, Aslam and Nazir in hospital. Later that night, the Aslam family home was attacked, and bricks were thrown through the windows.
The fight caused a bitter feud between the two families that ended in a failed assassination plot, with Betro at the helm.
Standing in Birmingham Crown Court, Betro explained that she met Nazir on a dating app in 2018, the same year the fight broke out between the two families.
She travelled to the U.K twice to meet him.
In December 2018, she flew from Wisconsin to Manchester, England, where they first met and spent Christmas together, and slept together.
The murder plot was seemingly hatched shortly after. It remains unclear why a woman with no prior ties to Nazir and his family would become embroiled in the murder plot of a man she had no connection to.
She stayed in England until the following month, returning to the U.S in January 2019.
A few months later in May 2019, she travelled back to the U.K, but did not meet up with Nazir.
On 22 August 2019, Betro arrived at Manchester airport, in Manchester England where she rented a Mercedes.
After allowing Nazir to drive, he almost instantly crashed the vehicle into two other cars, one of which was being driven by his father, and the other a friend in an attempt at insurance.
Around a week later she made her way to Nazir's hometown in Derby where the two met up. They made their way to a nearby barren area so Betro could test the firearm she would later use to kill Muhamad’s son, Sikander Ali, with.
She then checked in at the Rotunda Hotel in Birmingham, a cylindrical high rise building that serves as a four-star hotel near Chancellor's Lake.
Mohammed Nabil Nazir was later found to have received gun parts, mailed from the U.S to the U.K, which Betro was determined to have used in the assassination attempt.
Using the pseudonym Becky Booth, she bought a Mercedes E240 in Alum Rock, the same area where the fight between the families had taken place.
She also purchased a burner phone for herself, as well as another for Nazir.
On the evening of 7 September 2019, Betro dressed in a niqab and waited outside of Ali’s home on a suburban cul-de-sac in South Yardley, a largely residential area in east Birmingham.
At around 8:00pm, Sikander Ali parked outside his home and exited his vehicle, Betro exited her vehicle and pulled out a semi-automatic 9mm pistol.
She got within point blank range of Ali and pulled the trigger, but the firearm jammed.
Realising the gun had jammed, Ali fled the scene, jumping into his SUV and peeling off, hitting the door of Betro’s vehicle in the process.
Having failed the assassination attempt, Betro tore off in her own vehicle, and later dumped it. Still determined to complete the mission, she changed her clothing, and waited until early morning to return to Yardly in a taxi.
Although she changed her clothing, she neglected to change her footwear- a detail that would later make it easier for police to identify her. She also continued to use the same phone.
Betro walked back to the property and shot through the windows of Muhammad’s home. She was unaware that the property was vacant following the earlier incident.
By September 9, Betro had returned to the U.S, soon followed by Nazir on September 11.
They conspired to shift the attention away from themselves by mailing gun parts to a third, uninvolved party, and framing him for the attempted murder. Their plan was to ship the parts and then anonymously contact the police.
Unbeknownst to Betro and Nazir, West Midlands police were already aware of their plan, and had collected CCTV footage of Betro driving back and forth past Muhamad's home and buying the burner phones. They also had phone data and records.
Additionally, she had left her own DNA across various locations, including in a glove found in the abandoned vehicle, and the packages she mailed to the U.K.
Nazir attempted to return to the U.K on October 13, where he was promptly detained.
In November 2024, Nazir and Aslam were ultimately sentenced to 32 years, and 10 years behind bars.
Betro went on the run, travelling to Armenia, where she hid for several years until she was finally caught.
Together with the FBI, police were able to extradite her.
She was detained in Armenia on July 3, 2024, and extradited to the U.K in July 2025. She pleaded not guilty at a hearing on Valentines day of 2025 and the case went to trial.
On 21 July 2025, Betro's trial began. The footage and other evidence were shown to the court, as well as harassing text messages Betro had sent to Muhamad, goading him and asking him to meet.
She denied that the woman in the footage was her, saying that it was someone who looked like her. She denied any and all involvement in the shooting.
On 12 August 2025, Betro was found guilty of conspiracy to murder, possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence, and illegal importation of ammunition into the UK.
Betro was sentenced to thirty years and will be eligible for parole in 2044.