End of road for heir to Akasha drug empire
A single gunshot to the head ended the life of Swaleh Yussuf Ahmed alias Kandereni, a Mombasa drug baron said to have inherited the drug empire at the Kenyan Coast from the once dominant Akasha family.
Swaleh’s lifeless body was reportedly discovered dumped in a thicket in Msumarini area, Kilifi on Sunday, with a gun wound on his head, days after another drug kingpin, also nicknamed Candy Rain, mysteriously went missing.
It was not immediately clear who would have executed Yussuf and why. Intelligence reports suggest that the baron, who has been on police radar and in and out of custody for years, might have been lured to death by rivals from Pakistan in a classic case of a deal gone sour.
Yesterday, some reports revealed that for the last one month, the Pakistan drug lords had been tracking him, suggesting that he got wind of this and decided to remain indoors and “was never walking freely around Mombasa.”
According to the reports, the Pakistan cartels then sent hit men who successfully managed to execute him in a manner “to show him their wrath.”
Swaleh’s family, however, believes he was executed by police.
His lawyer Jared Magolo told People Daily that the family informed him that on Friday, March 8, he was picked from his home by people who claimed to be police officers. By Monday, March 11, the deceased had not been taken to court prompting the family to mount a search.
“People who picked him said they were police officers. I cannot vouch for that but that was the information given to me by the family. They reported a missing person and yesterday, they got information of a body found. Of course, we believe he was executed by police. Remember he had been acquitted over drug related matters eight times and they were getting frustrated,” Magolo told People Daily.
Yesterday, no one in the security ranks was willing to speak about the matter. Coast Regional Commissioner Rhodah Onyancha said she was not aware of the killing while Regional Police Commander George Seda did not answer our calls.
Security meeting
During a high-level security meeting in Mombasa attended by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, last month, Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome tasked Sedah to arrest drug barons within four days.
Koome ordered police to ruthlessly go for the barons in the renewed war on drugs as the government promised to cut the supply of hard drugs in the Coast region where the menace is increasingly wreaking havoc on young people.
Detectives who have been closely monitoring Swaleh’s business claim in the process of controlling the drugs business in Coast for decades, Yussuf made “enemies in the drug circles.”
Just like the Akashas, detectives reveal that Yussuf grew his empire in leaps and bounds, amassing immense wealth and a wide network of informers such that he became slippery.
“As a result, he was not in good books with his traditional suppliers in Pakistan who he owed millions of money that he was not remitting as per their agreement,” the detectives claimed.
Affidavits sworn in court indicate that police have been linking the Mombasa-born Yussuf to an international drug trafficking syndicate that rivaled the Akashas.
According to detectives, the slain drug lord established a multi-billion shillings drugs empire with both local and international footprints in a record four years.
Court documents indicate that he started as a supplier, or courier, in narcotics circles, in 2010, and at one time was jailed for 25 years for trafficking five kilogrammes of heroin. He, however, successfully appealed the sentence at a Mombasa court and was acquitted for lack of evidence.
He was also charged at the Mombasa Law Courts in 2011 and 2013 with trafficking drugs, but was acquitted in both cases.
Intelligence reports further reveal that Yussuf worked as a matatu driver in Kisauni and Bamburi areas before he was recruited by a Mombasa-based drug baron to peddle Rohypnol tablets commonly known as Buguzi. As his trade started to thrive and grow beyond the borders, he soon found himself on the wrong side of the law, resulting in several police arrests.
On September 18, 2021, he was arrested in connection with a 92-kg heroin haul with an estimated street value of more than Sh300 million, one of the biggest recoveries in the country.
Drugs were recovered in a house in Kikambala by Anti-Narcotics Trafficking Police. A sworn affidavit tabled before Shanzu Principal Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda by an investigator attached to DCI and Anti-Narcotics Unit Patrick Mugambi, indicated that Yussuf owns several houses and lives in the upscale Kanamai in Kilifi from where police believe he runs several mini-buses to conceal his illicit trade.
