‘Sultan of drugs’ awaits drugs extradition decision

By
Murtaza Ali Shah
|
The Royal Courts of Justice, London

LONDON: A judge at the Royal Courts of Justice has reserved judgement on whether or not to grant right of appeal to a British Pakistani businessman from Lahore whose extradition on drugs import charges is sought by the United States government.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) on request of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested Mohammad Asif Hafeez, 60, from North London, in August 2017 in high security Wandsworth prison.

Referred to as the “Sultan” of drugs in court papers, Asif Hafeez appealed to the London High Court against his extradition after the Westminster Magistrates’ Court ordered his extradition to face charges in the US. The lawyers of Mr Hafeez then took the case to London High Court to challenge the extradition order, seeking right to appeal against the district court’s decision.

During a hearing on Thursday, the judge announced that having heard views from both sides, he has decided to reserve the judgment whether or not to allow the right of appeal to Asif Hafeez.

The London court’s hearing comes just days after U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan sentenced leading Kenyan drug trafficker, Baktash Akasha, to 25 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import heroin and methamphetamine and other crimes.

Prosecutors described Akasha as the leader of a crime family called the Akasha organization, a major smuggling operation connecting the poppy fields of Afghanistan to European and U.S. cities. In his guilty plea, Akasha also admitted to bribing officials in Kenya. His brother, Ibrahim Akasha, has also pleaded guilty in the case and is scheduled to be sentenced by the same judge in November. Baktash Akasha took control of the organization after his father, Ibrahim Akasha, was killed in a shooting, according to authorities.

Just before he was sentenced, Akasha apologized to his friends and family as he asked the judge to show “mercy.”

The case stemmed from a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration probe into the Akasha organization, leading to the extradition of the brothers to the United States from Kenya in January 2017 along with Gulam Hussein, a Pakistani national charged with heading a drug transportation network, and Vijaygiri Goswami, an Indian businessman accused of managing the organization’s drug business.

In August 2017, Asif Hafeez was arrested in London for extradition on accusation of working with the Akasha organization.

Hafeez has led a glamorous lifestyle in Britain and met Prince William and Prince Harry at many events, donating to the charities they supported. He is considered a close friend of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. Hafeez and wife Shahina have been pictured rubbing shoulders with Princess Beatrice, Dave Clarke and Pippa Middleton.

The US alleges that Hafeez conspired with Akasha Organisation, led by brothers Baktash Akasha Abdalla and Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, for heroin production and smuggling and set up a special laboratory in Mozambique. It claimed that Indian national Goswami and his wife Mamta Kulkarni, a well-known Bollywood actress, were also part of Hafeez’s gang and ran a factory in India to manufacture ephedrine, the deadly drug’s active ingredient. It alleged that this drug from India was then due to be smuggled to Mozambique.

The US prosecution claims that in 2014, the DEA launched an undercover operation against the Sultan-Akasha network using its undercover agents posed as Colombian drug dealers wanting to buy heroin. In October 2014, Ibrahim Akasha delivered a kilogram of heroin to the DEA agents in the Kenyan city of Mombasa - destined for the US and then delivered 98 kilograms of heroin to the DEA agents. The US government claims that the agents were told that the heroin was the ‘Sultan’s drugs’ and they reportedly spoke to Hafeez by Skype video which was secretly recorded. Following that the Akasha brothers and two others – Gulam Hussein and Vicky Goswami – were arrested by Kenyan police and extradited to the US.

At the time of his arrest, the NCA said that communication between members of Hafeez’s syndicate showed he was known as the Sultan. The NCA had said it worked with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to investigate Hafeez after he was allegedly identified as the source of large quantities of heroin being smuggled into Kenya from Afghanistan.

Asif Hafeez has said that he is a victim of mistaken identity and the British government shouldn’t extradite him to America over allegations that he was the leader of a global drug production and distribution syndicate worth tens of millions of pounds. He denies all charges.