Baktash Akasha (left) and his brother Ibrahim Akasha when they appeared before Mombasa Law Courts for their extradition case on January 2, 2017. [File, Standard]

Member of Kenya’s Akasha organization sentenced to 23 years in prison in U.S

NEW YORK  A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced Ibrahim Akasha, once a member of Kenya’s Akasha drug trafficking organization, to 23 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to trafficking heroin and methamphetamine and other crimes.

The Akasha brothers were arrested in Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2014 in a U.S.-led sting operation, in which authorities said they provided 99 kilograms (218 lbs) of heroin and two kilograms of methamphetamine to DEA informants posing as drug traffickers.

The sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan federal court, was a victory for prosecutors, who had argued that Akasha had been a top lieutenant to his brother Baktash Akasha, the Akasha organization’s former leader, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last August.

How Baktash took over drugs trade from father

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richman on Friday urged Marrero to give Ibrahim Akasha a similar sentence, saying he had acted as his brother’s “right hand man” and had “engaged in extreme violence.”READ MORE

Source:https://www.reuters.com/