On February 1, 2017 a plane flying across the Atlantic for several hours landed in New York with the most wanted drug fugitives from Kenya.
Before their extradiction on the fateful Saturday, the four were to appear in court on Monday but their lawyer, Cliff Ombeta, said his clients were no where to be seen.
The lawyer had said that he had reliable information that the four suspects did not go through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
“In Nairobi, I have checked at Wilson and Mombasa (airports) they also say they could not have passed through there. They said that for anyone to board a plane the immigration must know who the person is. None of the people with the description of our clients have been taken through them (immigration).
As the Akasha’s went down the plane’s steps into the waiting arms of US Air Marshalls, they had already decided that silence was no longer an option. And the selfishness that drives the raw ambition of the drug lords worldwide kicked in.
According to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, Baktash Akasha Abdalla and his brother, Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, were the leader and deputy of a sophisticated international drug trafficking network, responsible for tons of narcotics shipments throughout the world.
Not only did they manufacture and distribute narcotics for over two decades, they kidnapped, beat, and murdered others who posed a threat to their enterprise. When the brothers encountered legal interference, they bribed Kenyan officials — including judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers—in an effort to avoid facing the charges against them in the United States.
Also among them was Goswami who turned into a cooperating witness, effectively throwing the two brothers who had ambitions of keeping the Akasha name forever in folklore, under the bus.
But what could have turned Goswami, a man who had been with the Akashas through their most difficult of years? A man who had admitted to the US court to having contracted a killer on behalf of the brothers to knock off an acquaintance?
Alleged druglord Vicky Goswami and Bollywood star Mamta Kulkarni are believed to be in a relationship since ’90s, though they deny it
A dig into Goswami’s past reveals the story of a man neck high in crime. Investigating agencies did not need to lean too hard on him.
At the height of his notoriety, Goswami had a large network of mules that straddled various countries.
A 2016 investigation by Indian newspaper Indian Express said the man, popularly known as Vicky, never skipped an opportunity to use this ephedrine to cook meth (methamphetamine), also known as crystal, and supply it to various countries including the US.
With money coming in thick and fast, and addicted to the high life, he set out to build a business empire, dabbling in hospitality and aviation. Living the life of a movie star. Eventually, his business ambitions outgrew the borders of India.
Goswami started supplying drugs in Ahmedabad till he eventually moved to Africa, from where he started operating the drug empire.