Kenyan fugitive with Sh100 million bounty on his head arrested
By Hilary KimuyuA Kenyan national who is wanted in the United States for wildlife and drug trafficking has been arrested. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said Abdi Hussein Ahmed alias Abu Khadi was arrested on Tuesday in an early morning raid by detectives drawn from the Serious Crimes Unit in Maua, Meru County.
Ahmed had previously been charged with participating in a conspiracy to traffic in Rhinoceros horns and Elephant ivory, both protected wildlife species, valued at more than 7 million dollars.
He is facing the charges alongside Moazu Kromah alias Ayoub, Amara Cherif alias Bamba Issiaka and Mansur Mohamed Surur alias Mansour.
The US government issued a warrant for his arrest following his indictment by a New York court for conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy to distribute and possess narcotic drugs.
The warrant was issued on May 7, 2019, following an indictment filed at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The crimes are said to have involved the illegal poaching of more than 35 rhinos and more than 100 elephants.
The DCI said their indictment, followed a joint investigation of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), where a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York, charged Ahmed and his other co-conspirators with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
Authorities said from December 2012 through May 2019, Ahmed and his co-conspirators conspired to transport, distribute, sell and smuggle at least approximately 190kg of rhinoceros horns and at least 10 tons of elephant ivory from various countries in East Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, the DR Congo, Guinea, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania, to buyers located in the United States and countries in Southeast Asia.
“The arrest of the two international fugitives Abdi Hussein Ahmed and his accomplice Badru Abdul Aziz Saleh, barely two months after the joint briefing by Mr Kneedler and the DCI Chief George Kinoti, points to the longstanding partnership that the Directorate has had with the United States, in combating trans-national organized crimes in the world. This can only get better,” the DCI said.
In January last year, the Kenyan government extradited Surur to the US to face charges. His arrest came a month after a Nairobi court okayed the extradition of the 60-year-old, following an application filed by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Noordin Haji.