The Directorate of Criminal Investigations announced that two Kenyan citizens, Akasha brothers Baktash and Ibrahim Akasha, had pleaded guilty to six counts of drug trafficking and corruption charges before a court in the Southern District of New York.
The DCI revealed that it participated in the case, stating that it had presented “a watertight case” against the two “in partnership” with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Director of the DCI Anti-Narcotic Unit had personally flown to the United States to have the two brothers plead guilty to the charges.
A tweet from the DCI read, “The Director #AntiNarcoticsUnit personally flew to the USA having diligently prepared the case and managed to have the two accused persons plead guilty to drug trafficking charges, corruption to defeat extradition and conspiracy to use guns to facilitate their drug trafficking business.”
The drug trafficking case facing Baktash and Ibrahim came to a close Wednesday more than a year after they were arrested in Mombasa by several armed individuals who had identified themselves as Kenyan police.
On January 30, 2017, Ibrahim and Baktash were transferred to the custody of US Drug Enforcement Agency personnel, who flew them to New York.
US prosecutors had earlier charged them with conspiracy to smuggle 98 kilogrammes of heroin into the US.
A US court rejected the brothers’ argument that they had been “forcibly kidnapped” and extradited into detention in New York in violation of a US-Kenya extradition treaty.
However, Judge Victor Marrero stated that the application by the Akasha’s was an effort to avoid trial on drug-smuggling charges by claiming that the US court lacks jurisdiction on their case.
The two had sought to compel the US government to hand over documents related to their “extradition or expulsion from Kenya.”
