Akasha brothers Baktash and Ibrahim Akasha on Wednesday pleaded guilty to six accounts of drug trafficking.
The two who were extradited to the US in January 2017 appeared before judge Victor Morrero at the Southern District of New York court.
The two further pleaded guilty to corruption charges in an attempt to avoid extradition and facing the charge of conspiracy of using guns to facilitate their drug trafficking business .
The Akasha brothers were arrested in Mombasa together with Pakistan national Gulam Hussein and Indian national Vijaygiri Goswami on January 28th, 2017 for trafficking 98kg of heroin from Kenya to US before being extradited from the US from Mombasa.
An application by the brothers to be released on July 2018 citing forceful kidnap, extradition, and detention in the US, which is a violation of an extradition treaty was not successful after judge Victor Morrero argued the application was an effort to avoid trial on drug smuggling charges by claiming the court lacks jurisdiction on their case.
Kenya’s anti-narcotics unit chief Amisa Massa had in person traveled to the US to facilitate the prosecution of the four accused persons.
“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 DCI said in a tweet.
The two suspects could be sentenced to life in prison in the US as per the drug trafficking law