US to seize Akasha sons’ Sh110m assets in drugs traffic case

From left, Baktash Akasha Abdalla, Vijaygiri Anandgiri, Gulam Hussein and Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla at the Mombasa Law Courts on November 13, 2014. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT  

By BRIAN WASUNA, bwasuna@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Baktash and Ibrahim Akasha, Gulam Hussein and Vijaygiri Goswami will have to forfeit all proceeds of the drugs trade.
• As per US laws the prosecutors are at liberty to seek attachment of property owned by the suspects.
• The Akashas are accused of trafficking in 98 kilos of heroin and two kilos of methamphetamine (meth) to the US valued at $1.1 million (Sh113 million) in 2014.

The United States is set to impound property owned by sons of slain drug baron Ibrahim Akasha worth over Sh110 million as they face trial in New York for alleged narcotics trafficking.

US prosecutors have held in indictment papers that pursuant to the country’s laws, Baktash and Ibrahim Akasha, Gulam Hussein and Vijaygiri Goswami will have to forfeit all proceeds of the drugs trade, the subject of the criminal trial, whether obtained directly or indirectly.

As per US laws the prosecutors are at liberty to seek attachment of property owned by the suspects.

The suspects were on Tuesday slapped with four counts of drug trafficking violations in a New York court following a joint operation between the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Kenyan authorities.

They are accused of trafficking in 98 kilos of heroin and two kilos of methamphetamine (meth) to the US valued at $1.1 million (Sh113 million) in 2014.

Unknowingly, the Colombian traffickers they believed to be selling the narcotics to were actually DEA agents on an undercover operation.

It is yet to be established whether authorities have seized any proceeds the four received from their attempted shipping of the drugs.

“As a result of committing the controlled substance offence alleged in counts one, two, three and four of this indictment, Baktash, Ibrahim, Hussein and Goswami shall forfeit to the US any and all property constituting or derived from any proceeds the defendants obtained directly or indirectly as a result of the said violation.

“If any of the property cannot be located upon the exercise of due diligence, has been transferred, sold to or deposited with third parties, has been placed beyond the jurisdiction of the court, has been substantially diminished in value or has been comingled with other property that cannot be divided without difficulty, it is the intention of the US to seek forfeiture of any other property of the defendants up to the value of the forfeitable property,” the indictment papers read.

READ: Kenya extradites Akasha brothers to US on suspicion of heroin smuggling

Prosecutors in the criminal trial say that Baktash in recorded conversations with the undercover DEA agents divulged that he planned to later open a meth lab with Mr Hussein.

The 100 kilos of heroin and meth allegedly sourced from Afghanistan and Pakistan were delivered to the undercover DEA agents in Nairobi on November 7, 2014 by Ibrahim and another unnamed suspect.

The agents paid $25,000 (Sh2.5 million) for transport and $45,000 (Sh46.3 million) for an additional five kilos of meth.

Mr Goswami sent a text message to the agents with details of how to pay $550,000 (Sh56.6 million) for half of the consignment.

Ibrahim and Baktash were, however, able to deliver only one additional kilo which they gave to the DEA agents alongside a $34,000 (Sh35 million) refund, two days after the initial delivery.