Daesh Briton recruited dozens of fighters in London
Alexanda Kotey in custody in US awaiting trial over beheadings of Western hostages in Syria
A member of the Daesh gang dubbed “the Beatles” due to their British origin is suspected of recruiting as many as 25 fighters from his home area of west London.
Notorious terrorist Alexanda Kotey, who is in custody in the US awaiting trial over the beheadings of Western hostages in Syria, is suspected of having radicalized dozens of young men.
The group was known as the “Westway warriors” because they lived near a major motorway flyover called the Westway in the London suburb of Ladbroke Grove.
Details about members of the terror gang have been popularized in a new BBC film based on investigations by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper.
It was revealed that the number of fighters inspired to travel to Syria is almost double what was previously documented.
The fate of some of the fighters is unknown, raising concerns that they could slip under the radar and return to Britain to plan and conduct attacks.
Kotey, 37, has hired Sabrina Shroff, the American defense lawyer who is helping Abu Hamza.
The Finsbury Park Mosque hate preacher — who was sentenced to life without parole on terrorism charges — has lodged an appeal to be released from maximumsecurity prison ADX Florence in Colorado on humanitarian grounds.
Kotey and El-Shafee Elsheikh, 32, another captured member of the “Westway warriors,” are due to go on trial in January next year.
If convicted they could face life imprisonment, likely in solitary confinement and without the opportunity for parole.
The BBC documentary, “Secrets of an ISIS Smartphone,” follows a 2019 investigation by the Sunday Times that tracked Britons in the Iraq and Syria conflicts through video and photos recovered from a Samsung smartphone.
The Galaxy phone is thought to have been used by up to four British Daesh members. Files on the device were uploaded to a hard drive shared with a Sunday Times reporter by Western-backed forces in Syria after Daesh lost its territory.
Two of the phone’s regular users — Choukri Ellekhlifi, 22, and Fatlum Shalaku, 20 — were among Kotey’s Ladbroke Grove group.