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MOMBASA. — The US yesterday requested Kenya to extradite two sons of slain drug baron Ibrahim Akasha and two foreigners to stand trial in Washington over international drug trafficking.
Kenya’s State Counsel Alexander Muteti said the four, Baktash Akasha, Ibrahim Akasha, Hussein Shabakash, and Vijay Goswami, are wanted in America for alleged drug trafficking.
“We have been served with notices through the ministry of foreign affairs and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), wanting the country to enforce the arrest of four individuals to stand trial in America,” Muteti told a Mombasa court yesterday.
Muteti told the court that the DPP’S office received the notice on Monday that requested Kenya to co-operate by executing a provisional arrest for purpose of extradition.
The State Counsel has told the court that the four are under the Interpol Red notice for allegedly engaging in narcotic trade.
Report indicated on Monday that US Drug Enforcement Administration would apply for their extradition to face charges of conspiracy to traffic narcotic drugs.
The anti-narcotics police unit in Mombasa said they arrested the four together with 98 packets of heroin over the weekend, and five packets were released to the US government for evidential purposes.
This is the first high-level arrest of drug barons at the coast, three months after President Uhuru Kenyatta supervised the destruction of a ship laden with heroin worth US$111,200.
Kenya recently signed a bilateral agreement with some Western nations that among others allows the countries to cooperate on sharing intelligence on drug tracking crime.
Muteti said the Kenya government is signatory of international treaty on drug enforcement hence to comply in arrest and their extradition of the four suspects.
Kenya is now expected to process the extradition request within the next 21 days and the four are wanted in the US courts where they are facing charges of conspiring to import narcotics.
Gowsami — an Indian — is also faced with another count of importing methamphetamine violating the United States laws.
The fact in the charge also emphasises that the Akashas — whose father Ibrahim Akasha, Kenya’s suspected drug baron, was killed by drug mafias in 2000 — as the leaders of organised crimes and drug trafficking networks.
Shabakash is also mentioned to be a transporter of multi-hundred-kilogram quantities of heroin in the Middle East, including from Afghanistan and Pakistan region.
The detectives believe the four are among those behind the haul of heroine worth over US$11,2 million seized in July in the Kenyan high seas.
The UN has identified East African nations as a drug transport hub for drugs going to Europe from Asia and the Middle East. Hardly a month passes without an arrest of drug traffickers at the main airport. —Xinhua.
Online Reporter