{"id":356080,"date":"2026-09-24T21:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T21:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356080\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T21:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T21:22:12","slug":"queens-supermarket-owner-and-self-claimed-king-of-new-york-found-guilty-of-running-kidnapping-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356080\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens supermarket owner and self-claimed ‘King of New York’ found guilty of running kidnapping ring"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens supermarket owner who fancied himself the \u201cKing of New York\u201d has been convicted of orchestrating a string of bizarre revenge kidnappings<\/a> in his Bangladeshi community, officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n

A Brooklyn Federal Court jury needed just two hours to find Abu Chowdhury, 36, guilty of three counts each of kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap.<\/p>\n

The two-week trial included video from all three abductions he and his cohorts committed,<\/a> and testimony from terrified victims and two accomplices who turned government cooperators.<\/p>\n

Chowdhury, who co-owns the BD Fresh Supermarket in Jamaica, Queens, targeted his victims<\/a> to burnish his reputation and to defend the honor of his girlfriend-now-wife, Iffat Lubna \u2014 who was convicted in a separate trial in April.<\/a><\/p>\n

Chowdhury was \u201cfurious about what he viewed about a hit to his reputation,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Tannen said during his closing argument Tuesday. \u201cHe wanted to protect and promote his (reputation), and to show his community he was, as he said, the \u2018King of New York.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The charges against him carry a life sentence, though more realistically he faces the prospect of decades behind bars, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe acts committed by the defendant, along with his co-defendants and co-conspirators, were brutal, senseless, and cannot be tolerated in a civilized society,\u201d U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Chowdhury\u2019s first victim was embroiled in a years-long TikTok feud with a 41-year-old Queens resident and at some point started calling out Chowdhury, challenging him to a fight, and boasting that the supermarket owner \u201cdidn\u2019t own the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AbuAbu Chowdhury seen on surveillance video, according to authorities. (U.S. Attorney’s Office)<\/p>\n

Chowdhury ambushed that victim on March 27, 2023, at 181st St. and Hillside Ave. in Jamaica, forcing him into a Honda SUV to take a rough, hours-long ride through Queens, with accomplice Ruhel Choudhury at the wheel. Jurors saw a video, taken by Chowdhury, of his victim standing naked in front of a garage.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the kidnappers gave the victim water laced with a sedative, and when he came to, he found himself in a local hospital with multiple injuries.<\/p>\n

Chowdhury kidnapped and tortured his next two targets because they disrespected his wife, Lubna, who he was dating at the time.<\/p>\n

One of those victims met Lubna in an online English-as-a-second-language class and reached out to her on May 10, 2023, on Microsoft Teams to hit on her. As part of his pick-up strategy, he compared her to \u201ca bland mashed potato\u201d but said that in the hands of an expert hotel chef, she could be turned into \u201ca delicious potato chop\u2026 a mouthwatering Kacchi biryani,\u201d referring to a South Asian dish.<\/p>\n

Lubna wasn\u2019t amused, saying in a recording, \u201cI want to see his dead body.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she and Chowdhury set a trap. She agreed to go out with their victim, but stood him up, and as he was walking back home on May 11, Chowdhury and an accomplice ambushed him and forced him into a minivan. Lubna was sitting him inside.<\/p>\n

They drove him around Queens, took his phone, beat him with a rod, stomped him, used his bank card to withdraw $1,000, and called his father demanding a ransom. They then took him to the Corona Hotel in Long Island City, where Chowdhury sexually assaulted him with a metal rod, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\"AbuAbu Chowdhury seen on surveillance video, according to authorities. (U.S. Attorney’s Office)<\/p>\n

Chowdhury was convicted after Lubna was found guilty in a separate trial. Prosecutors also secured convictions against accomplices Syed Ruhel Ahmed, 46, Shahed Alom, 32, and Ruhel Choudhry, 36. Two other members of the kidnapping ring became government cooperators.<\/p>\n

Morrison allowed Chowdhury to remain free on a $250,000 bond, though under house arrest, over prosecutors\u2019 objections, before she holds a hearing Friday to determine if that bond should be revoked after the verdict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens supermarket owner who fancied himself the \u201cKing of New York\u201d has been convicted of orchestrating a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,11,10,12,261,122,265],"class_list":["post-356080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}