CAPTION: Adil Albosaad, owner of E & L Market, is a local hero who helped police bust swindlers.
When Moussa and Ahmed offered the owner of E & L Market $1 million cash for his building, he knew it didn't smell right. Adil Albosaad was at his home one Sunday evening back in April when one of his employees called him at about 9:30 p.m. The employee said that there was someone in the store, at Lowry and Emerson, who wanted to buy the building and the business. Albosaad just wanted to spend an evening at home so he told his employee to have the prospective buyer call him the next day, but the buyer, Moussa, insisted that he wanted to talk to him right away. Albosaad thought if he asked for $1 million Moussa would leave him alone, but instead he said "That's fine. I've got $4 million to spend."
Albosaad wasn't born yesterday. Even so, he was intrigued by the unorthodox business offer and decided to play along to find out what was really going on. About a week later Moussad returned to the store with his brother Ahmed to meet with Albosaad. Albosaad gave them a tour of the property, and when they were in the basement of the building, Moussa made his pitch. He told Albosaad that he was the son of the former Prime Minister of Sierra Leon, and that his father had been killed in civil unrest. Moussa explained that he had managed to smuggle $4 million in cash out of the country into the U.S. and was looking for a way to invest it.
But there was a catch. There's always a catch. The money was in several suitcases being held by someone from the U.N. who helped him smuggle it into the country and he needed $2,000 to get it out of storage. Albosaad, not being born yesterday, declined.
None the less, Moussa and Ahmed returned a couple of days later with some "samples" of the money. What they showed Albosaad were two pieces of paper, the size of U.S. currency, but they were totally covered in a black dye. They then produced a "special liquid chemical" with which they washed the bills, revealing what appeared to be genuine U.S. currency. Moussa and Ahmed explained that in order to smuggle the currency in to the U.S., they had to dye each bill black in order to avoid detection. But there was another catch. The "special chemical" needed to remove the dye was costly. Very costly. In fact, it cost $160,000 a liter. All Moussa and Ahmed needed from Albosaad was the $160,000 to wash the money and the million dollar deal could be done.
Did I mention that Albosaad wasn't born yesterday? Albosaad was however, in touch with the Minneapolis Police Department. So Albosaad continued to play along. He told his would-be business partners that he couldn't just hand over $160,000 without seeing the money first. They agreed to bring him the money. What they didn't realize was that they would be walking into the middle of a police stake out.
On May 5, at about 1:45 p.m. Moussa and Ahmed arrived at E & L Market. They met with Albosaad and escorted him out to their car, where the black money was. Albosaad took a look inside the car, saw thee stacks of supposed cash and smiled, thinking to himself, "We got them!" Albosaad gave the signal, and MPD officers moved in. Arrested were Richard Henry Merchant (Ahmed) of Crystal Minnesota, and Benjamin McBorrough (Moussa) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were booked on Theft by Swindle charges.
"I knew there was something wrong with these guys from the very beginning," said Albosaad. "They must have scammed a lot of other people before they got to me. I didn't want them swindling anyone else, so I decided to play along and call the police. It took several weeks of phone calls and meetings to get them arrested but it was worth it to get them off the streets."
Adil Albosaad stood up and did the right thing for his community. You should stop by E & L Market, buy a quart of milk, and thank him.