Kenya releases US-wanted suspected drug kingpins on bail

NAIROBI: Four suspected top drug traffickers in Kenya awaiting extradition to the United States were freed on bail Monday, amid concerns of east Africa's growing importance as a smuggling hub.

The four - two Kenyans, an Indian and a Pakistani - were arrested last month with 98 packets of suspected heroin, with the US issuing an Interpol "red notice" for their capture and request for their extradition.

They are accused of orchestrating large scale shipments of heroin weighing several hundred kilogrammes, drugs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Each was released on a cash bail of 55,000 dollars (45,000 euros) and made to surrender their passports, magistrate Maxwell Gicheru said.

Two, Baktash Akasha Abdalla and Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, are members of a Kenyan family linked to several drug trafficking trials.

Their wealthy father, Ibrahim Akasha, was gunned down in Amsterdam in 2000, after fleeing Kenya where he was sought in connection with the seizure of several tonnes of hashish.

The two other suspects are Vijaygiri Anandgiri Goswami, an Indian, and Kulam Hussein, from Pakistan.

Magistrate Gicheru last month said Kenya should cooperate with the extradition request "because international crime has hurt" the country.

With drug smuggling routes from Asia through the Middle East hampered by conflict and tougher border restrictions, traffickers have increasingly turned to east Africa as a transport hub, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC).

While heroin has been trafficked through east Africa for the past three decades, UNODOC said in a recent report that a series of "large seizures" of Afghan heroin suggests trade is increasing, often smuggled on traditional dhow boats from the coast of Iran and Pakistan.

In April, British and Australian navies seized the largest ever haul of heroin at sea, weighing 1,032 kilogrammes.

The drugs, worth some $235 million (170 million euros), were found on a dhow some 30 miles (50 kilometres) off the coast of Kenya and Tanzania.

East Africa has a small but growing domestic market for heroin, but the vast majority shipped to Kenya and Tanzania is believed to be then moved onwards to South Africa and west Africa, and potentially on to Europe.