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Kenyan drug lord Ibrahim Akasha has been sentenced to 23 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and other crimes.
“I would like to take the time to apologize to the families who were destroyed due to my dealings in drugs,” he said.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero handed the sentence in Manhattan federal court after postponing the sentencing twice last year.
In October 2018, Ibrahim and his elder brother Baktash pleaded guilty in the federal court to conspiring to import and importing heroin and methamphetamine, conspiring to use and carry machineguns and destructive devices in connection with their drug-trafficking crimes, and obstructing justice by paying bribes to Kenyan officials in an effort to avoid being extradited to the United States.
In August 2019, Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said: “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.”
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.
