A court in New York, USA on Friday sentenced Baktash Akasha Abdalla, kingpin of the Akasha crime family, to 25 years in jail.
Akasha was charged with seeking to import large quantities of Heroin and Methamphetamine into the United States.
The notorious 41-year old Baktash was also ordered to pay a $100,000 (Sh10,000,000) fine.
In addition, he was accused of conspiring to possess machine guns and other destructive devices and bribing Kenyan government officials in a bid to avoid extradition to the U.S.
Alongside his brother Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, Baktash was provisionally arrested in November 2014 following an undercover operation co-ordinated by DEA agents in Kenya.
The brothers took over one of the continent's biggest drug operations after their father Ibrahim was gunned down while on a trip to Amsterdam in 2000.
“Baktash Akasha led a massive drug trafficking organization responsible for shipping tons of finished narcotics, and the ingredients to make tons more, around the world. Akasha, along with his brother, ensured that their enterprise operated with impunity for nearly 20 years by eliminating and intimidating rival drug traffickers with violence and murder, and bribing Kenyan government officials to avoid extradition to the U.S.
"Akasha was once one of the world’s most prolific and violent drug traffickers, but today’s significant sentence of 25 years in prison all but guarantees he will never profit from the illicit drug trade again,” stated Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman following the ruling.
The ruling was delivered by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero with Ibrahim Akasha to be sentenced on November 8, 2019.
