Manhunt for Akashas was secretive and detailed

From left: Baktash Akasha Abdalla, Gulam Hussein, Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla and Vijaygiri Anandgiri Goswami appear in court in Mombasa on June 20, 2016 for the mention of their extradition case. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Usually, drug trafficking, like any underworld business, is controlled by rival syndicates or cartels that seek to dominate and eliminate competition in their wake.
  • Reports indicate that of the 45 tonnes of heroin trafficked within the region, five tonnes are consumed locally.
  • Bribery, as opposed to mafia-like killing and extortion associated with drug barons elsewhere in the world, was the modus operandi of the well oiled family-led empire.

The arrest and the spiriting to the United States of Baktash and Ibrahim Akasha and their two accomplices could open up a new front in the scramble for the regional narcotics turf.

Even as the case continues in the US, the grip of patriarch and drugs kingpin Ibrahim Akasha, who was killed in 2000 in the Netherlands, is said to have been sustained by his allies. 

But now, multiple sources familiar with the operations of the drug cartels say, those outmuscled by the empire built by Akasha Senior will attempt to claim a stake.

Usually, drug trafficking, like any underworld business, is controlled by rival syndicates or cartels that seek to dominate and eliminate competition in their wake.

“The Akashas went underground after the death of their father,” says an intelligence officer in the anti-narcotics unit.  

He says powerful forces in the Narc government, which took over in 2003, displaced the Akasha Snr empire and their associates.

But the Akashas, according to court documents, after a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, are alleged to have returned in full force.

Akasha Snr was the archetypical global drug baron.

He built up a massive drugs distribution network in the region.

And in the wake, a huge consumption market for this banned substance.

Reports indicate that of the 45 tonnes of heroin trafficked within the region, five tonnes are consumed locally.

This is enough dose for 500,000 Intravenous Drug Users for two years, according to experts.

VETTED UNIT
There are now fears that the impending weakening of the Akasha Snr empire could suck in west African and East European narcotics kings into the country.

The focus on the August elections campaigns and intact corruption networks in the immigration and security sectors could further make the entry of new players easier. 

The Akasha drug empire is said to have dealt mostly in heroin from Afghanistan through Pakistan while the west Africans had resorted to South American cocaine they easily moved overland into what UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) calls Region of Eastern Africa (Roea).

The collapse of the Opium Trail that was key in channelling Afghan heroin through Turkey onwards to Europe and the US was a boon to the network associated with the Akasha empire who seized the route to develop networks in Pakistan, India and China.

The conflict in Turkey, Syria and in the Soviet breakaway states left this route unusable.

The new route, Smack Track or Southern Route, first used by barons in 2010, avoids eastern and central Europe and instead targets Roea as the drugs distribution point.

Leading international magazine The Economist calls it a “circuitous route to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan to Europe, passing through East Africa”.

Once refined and repackaged here, the illicit drugs are transported by air or via sea through Indian Ocean and the west African coast onwards to consumption in Europe and the US.

Security agencies allege that the Akasha brothers and cohorts were key in the drug machine that travelled this southern route.

They distributed “literally tons of narcotics – heroin and methamphetamine – around the globe, including to America”, according to Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara.

The hunt for the Akashas was detailed and drew in America’s Drug Enforcement Administration in collaboration with a specially picked team of Kenyan police officers assembled to trail the narco-barons.

It is called the “Vetted Unit”, a 16-member rapid response force.

It is the same unit that used Akashas’ Moroccan ally to capture the brothers and the Indian associates in November 2014.

Baktash Akasha Abdalla at the High Court in Mombasa during the hearing of an extradition case against him on June 20, 2016. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP


America’s FBI had sought the Akashas for a long time.

The entire mission was secretive, to beat Kenya’s security system that often suffers lethargy and corruption and one that is curved to political arm-twisting.

The spiriting away of the Akashas to the US opens an interesting chapter in the family’s troubled history.

For a long time, the Akasha patriarch controlled hard drugs trafficked through maritime routes to and from eastern Africa.

Rival cartels were confined to airports and makeshift border points.

His death opened way for new barons at the Coast and in Nairobi.

West Africans became mere couriers, known as “mules” in the underworld.

Bribery, as opposed to mafia-like killing and extortion associated with drug barons elsewhere in the world, was the modus operandi of the well oiled family-led empire.

Money purchased loyalty, coerced and intimidated rivals and subdued any threats to his business.

“The Akasha family long controlled drugs along Mombasa to Europe”, Wikileaks Cable dated January 9, 2006, said of the organisation.

Powerbrokers in the Kanu regime are suspected to have worked closely with him.

Indeed, Akasha was the quintessential global drug baron.

But his death just before Daniel Moi’s regime left power kicked off a bitter scramble for the massive wealth he left behind.

Some of his handlers and family members died in the wake of the feud.

The consequent struggle nearly wiped out the empire he had built in the 1990s.

Baktash and Ibrahim endured the feud and, according to US documents, are alleged to have reclaimed the patriarch’s turf after a 10-year struggle.

During this time, the duo couldn’t defeat two cartels dominant during the Mwai Kibaki presidency.

One of the cartels was close to the powerbrokers in government and was suspected to have invited foreign criminals and provided them with protection to do their dirty work.

This powerful cartel controlled or had tentacles in government and politics.

It was at war with another cartel which, though not enjoying political patronage, had the financial muscle.

According to intelligence sources, the cartel that managed to declare the Akashas redundant in the illicit trade between 2003 and early 2010s was responsible for the murder of senior police officers at the Kenyan Coast and in Nairobi.

Lawyer Cliff Ombeta with his clients (from left) Vijaygiri Anandgiri Goswami, Gulam Hussein and Ibrahim Akasha during the mention of their extradition case in a court in Mombasa on January 13, 2017. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

One of those murdered, a senior Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer, was allegedly close to the Akasha empire.

But come 2013, the cartels active before the change of regime went into hiding.

Indeed, the Jubilee Government deported 92 foreigners – many of them suspected west African drug traffickers.

There were also clampdowns on alleged traffickers of Tanzanian, west African and Mozambique nationalities.

Interestingly, that year, there was “severe surge in rates of drug trafficking throughout the region, particularly with respect to heroin”, according to the 2014 annual report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Maritime Crime Programme. The publication called it “alarming spike”.

WARNING SHOT
Security sources say the underworld killing of Guinean alleged drug lord Komani Camara alias Boss Kamara along Cemetery Road, Jamhuri Park, in May 2014 was meant to be a warning shot to west African drug lords.

The Guinean was among those deported in 2013 but returned to Kenya quietly.

After assuming the mantle of the kinship operation, US investigators allege the Akashas started building links with Asians, in particular Indian and Pakistani drug lords.

Those extradited with the Akasha brothers – Vijaygiri Goswani and Gulam Hussein – both Indian nationals, were business friends on call.

Authorities are eager to link the one-ton consignment the British and Australian navy patrols seized in Indian Ocean in April 2014 to the Akashas.

Estimated at Sh23.5 billion on the black market, it was the largest ever drug consignment seized at sea.

The seizure was followed three months later with another 800 kilo heroin stashed in cement in a dhow in the Indian Ocean.

And outmuscled by the East African drug gangs, our intelligence sources say, the west African cartels resorted to cocaine from South America.

It was the easy option to avoid Kenya’s section of the Indian Ocean – by moving the illicit drug overland via southern, central, west and southern Africa.

But why is Kenya so attractive to international drug criminals?

One, heroin trafficked from Kenya is considered to be among the cheapest and purest in the world.

Those familiar with the trade say it could be 20 times cheaper than the price of one gramme in the US and 300 times cheaper than the cost of the same quantity in the UK.

According to Wikileaks Cables, Kenya’s heroin is “readily available and relatively inexpensive” in African countries like Nigeria and South Africa.

Two, corruption in Kenya ensures that drug barons can ply their illicit business without fear of arrest and prosecution.

Cocaine. More and more drug addicts are “graduating” from alcohol and cigarette to hard drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin, a survey has revealed. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

In fact, allegations remain that powerbrokers, including some top politicians and security chiefs, are complicit.

The country’s ill-secured borders coupled with a lax or corrupt immigration infrastructure facilitate the flow of drugs and “mules”.

Even deported barons like Boss Camara often find their way back or remotely control their networks in Kenya.

Three, Kenya is said to have heroin refining factories.

Reports indicate that the alleged accomplices of the Akashas had planned a Sh100 million factory at the Coast.

Four, the anti-trafficking legislation is too lenient.

The law that provides a fine of Sh1 million is too lenient for barons who pay off very easily.

It is only deterrent to small time traffickers or the so-called mules.

Five, an advanced financial infrastructure left to its own devices is a haven to launderers of ill-gotten wealth.

“Kenya remains vulnerable to money laundering and financial fraud. It is the financial hub of East Africa, and its banking and financial sectors are growing in sophistication,” says International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2016, a publication by the US Department of State.

In fact, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Zimbabwe are the only African countries the publication classifies in “jurisdictions of primary concern”.

But after the recent extraditions, security agencies will be closely watching movements in the drugs trade.