← The Underworld Podcast
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- [00:01]
Danny Gold
Support comes from wise. The smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. Fed up with losing out to hidden fees? When you send money abroad with your everyday bank, choose the smart way. Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that where's my money feeling. Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart, get wise. Download the wise app today. T's and C's apply. I sold my car in Carvana last night. Well, that's cool. No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong. So what's the problem? That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes to smoothing. I'm waiting for the catch. Maybe there's no catch. That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.
- [00:53]
Sean Williams
Wow.
- [00:53]
Danny Gold
You need to relax. I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood? Is this table wood? I think it's laminate. Okay. Yeah, that's good.
- [00:58]
Sean Williams
That's close enough.
- [00:59]
Danny Gold
Car selling without a catch. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up Fees may apply. May 3, the year 2000. In the red light district in Amsterdam, a slightly overweight middle aged man of Arab descent with a receding hairline is strolling down the aptly named Blood street with his wife. He could be any tourist out to gawk at the ladies in the windows or partake in illegal smoke. But he's not. He's the heroine kingpin of East Africa, Ibrahim Akasha. A man described by a Kenyan newspaper as, quote, the most important drug lord. A man so powerful that his name was whispered in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Europe. He was spoken of in awe, a drug dealer extraordinaire. If you needed any massive shipment of drugs sneaked into Europe, Akasha was the man you turn to. It's Akasha that first realized he could open a new drug route to Europe. Ordering heroin from Afghanistan to be sent to Pakistan and Iran, then brought into Kenya's massive port of Mombasa on ships, then sent overland to South Africa before it was brought into Western Europe and the uk. It's turned him into East Africa's first real drug lord and made him and his family a lot of money in the process. Akasha is in Amsterdam to meet with two Egyptian brothers who own a bar. But that's not all they do. They're important cogs in the European underworld. Middlemen who help massive shipments of heroin move around the world. Except there seems to be a problem with one of Akasha's recent shipments. A $2.5 million supply of heroin on consignment involving Akasha and a bunch of Yugoslavian gangsters has somehow ended up in the possession of a Dutch gang boss who is refusing to pay for it. Everyone is pissed off and the brothers are acting as mediators, despite the fact that it's likely their era. Akasha is there to meet with them face to face and have the problem solved. But he never makes it to the meeting. Instead, a gunman on a bicycle, because of course in Amsterdam, calmly rides up and shoots him seven times. He dies in his wife's arms. Everyone else in the deal, the two Egyptian brothers and the Dutch gang boss are killed within four years, not two years later. 8:30pm Thursday, March 28, 2002, to be precise. In Mombasa, Kenya, Ibrahim's heir apparent, his oldest son, Khal Medin, is sitting in a Land Rover discovery. He's doing his daily rounds, checking up on some of his businesses that he uses to wash his money. This one a gas station. His main business, though, along with the rest of his brothers, is heroin. Still, things aren't exactly harmonious. Since his dad was killed, some of his brothers have been clashing with each other over their father's money, over a missing hat shipment. Threats have been issued. Kamaldeen isn't too concerned, but maybe he should be, because at that moment, a gunman wearing black with a hoodie pulled up over his head is sneaking up on him. He gets close enough, fires three times and kills him before fleeing. He's dead, gunned down like his father. Not even two years later, two of his brothers immediately arrive on the scene and blame another brother for the hit, though they'll soon cast blame on a Serbian gangster and eventually perform a citizen's arrest on him in a truly bizarre incident. Whatever the case, the Akasha clan is down but not out. Soon enough, they'll be back to doing what they do best and expanding more than ever, says a paper by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. The Akasha brothers took over their father Ibrahim Akasha's drug trafficking syndicate following his murder in 2000, which had been trafficking Afghan heroin through Mombasa since the early 1990s. For nearly two decades, the brothers led this massive criminal enterprise, diversified into other drug markets, including trafficking Mandrax to South Africa and supplying Colombian cocaine to Europe, and developed interest in other regional criminal markets, including ivory, rhino horn and arms. This is the Underworld Podcast. Welcome back to General Podcast, where two Journalists who have traveled all over the world investigating criminals and definitely not trying to set up their own meth factories bring you a different story of international organized crime every single week. I'm Danny Gold. I'm joined, as always, by my partner with an English accent, Sean Williams, who is dressed like he's going to steal my mobile phone and ride off on a Vespa, you know, and. Or maybe I don't. I don't know, wear balaclava and go rob a guy's Rolex. What do they do now in England? Is that. Is that the move?
- [05:54]
Sean Williams
Okay. Okay. Yeah. All right, all right. I'm going to. Just, Just so you know, it's like, I think it's below freezing right now and I can't put the heater on in my little studio, so. So I have to wrap up. I've got like five layers on. That's why I look like a hoodlum.
- [06:10]
Danny Gold
Yeah, it's like a hundred percent.
- [06:10]
Sean Williams
That's the only reason why I was
- [06:12]
Danny Gold
wearing a tank top in the studio. But I saw myself on camera and was like, the comments is all explicably, never hear the end of it. So I'm rocking the. The Underworld pod merch right here.
- [06:21]
Sean Williams
You also, if enough of you, enough of you say you want to see the tank top, I think you're going to do it next time.
- [06:26]
Danny Gold
If we get enough votes next episode, I'll just. It's 95 degrees here, dude. You can't walk outside. Anyway, we have bonus episodes up@patreon.com Underworldpodcast or you can sign up on itunes or Spotify to get those. You also get these episodes ad free and early the night before they come out. Underworldpod.com for merch like this and email us at the underworldpodcastmail.com for tips and pointers. We've gotten a few ones actually that are good, which is different from the usual ones we get that are bad. So keep those coming. You may have also noticed that we have these awesome illustrated cold opens. That is thanks to Mary Lindstrom, who is insanely talented and has, like, impeccable cool taste. It's a wonder she wants anything to do with us. But she's been. She reached out to us and she's been putting these together, and I think they're awesome. Also, friends of mine just put out a new podcast called the Work behind the Work. It's about unseen labor in America and how it could be crippling the economy. So go check that out. The Work behind the Work.
- [07:26]
Sean Williams
I don't Remember signing off on that plug, Danny. You didn't remember that meeting, Bill. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, my friend just got promoted, so let's promote him. He got promoted. He's. I think he's a senior accountant now. So go him. I'm gonna promote him. Go check him out.
- [07:40]
Danny Gold
He's in the uk People always want. They're always like, you know, if your podcast had more. More like LinkedIn entries, audio that you guys were doing in the midst of the episodes, it would be a much bigger hit. So we're gonna. We're gonna start doing that. Email us your.
- [07:52]
Sean Williams
Let's do it.
- [07:53]
Danny Gold
Your new jobs and promotions. Okay. So East Africa and the Akashas, it's a region we haven't covered much, and that's because the sort of organized crime, drug trade, I don't think it's got too long a history there. I think we've done some poaching stuff and a couple other things, but it's not as developed as you would say, or even too active a present, comparatively speaking, to the regions we do cover a lot like the Balkans or Latin America. In fact, Ibrahim Akasha, the man whose story we're about to dive into, he might have really changed the game, as we're about to find out. And shout out to Alex Epperly, who actually tipped me off about this story. He sent a couple other really good tips. I think it's a great story. Have you ever actually spent time in East Africa, Sean?
- [08:35]
Sean Williams
Yeah, quite a bit. My first. I think it was my first proper reporting trip was out to. I flew into Nairobi and ended up in Somalia for a few weeks, and it was pretty insane. I don't know if I'd necessarily recommend it, but it did all right. Did all right for me. There's a funny episode with a guy who's my fixer who nearly got shot in the head, and everyone just acted the most calm I'd ever seen anyone act outside of a. Outside of a drug den. So that was a bit weird.
- [09:04]
Danny Gold
Yeah. I always wanted to make it to. To Somalia to report there after reading the Zanzibar test, but I never did. But I actually, I traveled the whole length of East Africa on a bicycle a lot. Like many, many years ago, literally camping and riding a bike for, like, five months. Because my uncle is this crazy adventurer who. Who started this tour called the Tour d' Afrique maybe 25 years ago. And it worked out when he was, like, 50 when he started it, but that's how I kind of got to know the area. And you can kind of see why it's. It's not an easy place to. To traffic large amounts of drugs, Although a lot of trucks, as we'll talk about, but not a lot of great infrastructure in terms of the stuff that you would need to traffic large amounts of drugs, or actually not even that much of a buyer's market. But we'll see that things are changing there. So the drug trade, the illicit drug markets of East Africa, they really get going around the 1990s. That's when you have Afghan heroin starting to flow into Kenyan and Tanzanian ports. Not a lot, but it starts to creep upwards. And most of it, it's not for domestic use. Right. In East Africa. Cause, I mean, these are poor areas. The market and the margins aren't there. Instead, it comes into East Africa and then makes its way to South Africa and from there to Western Europe. So it goes Afghanistan to Iran or Pakistan, from there to the east coast of Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Mombasa, then South Africa, then to Europe. Here's a quote from a 2018 report from a group called ENACT, which is Enabling Africa's Response to Transnational Organized CR. In countries all along the eastern seaboard of Africa, from Somalia to South Africa, the heroin trade has become embedded in local communities and linked to political elites. The East African heroin market is best understood as forming an integrated regional criminal economy based on the transit of heroin from Afghanistan to the west and with a spinoff trade for local consumption. Along this trafficking route. Much of the heroin is first shipped to Africa on motorized or wooden seagoing dhows. Dhows. How do you say that? Dhows.
- [10:59]
Sean Williams
Right, Dhows. Yeah, yeah, dhows.
- [11:02]
Danny Gold
Built in the United Arab Emirates, designed for fishing, the vessels are loaded with between 100 kg and 1000 kg consignments of contraband. Off the Makran coast of southern Pakistan, the dhows anchor off the coast of Africa in international waters. And flotillas of small boats collect the heroin and ferry it to various beaches, coves or islands or. Or offload it into small commercial harbors. Dozens of such sites are used for landing the consignments along the entire eastern coastline. Which, you know, kind of sounds like some areas, I think of Central America, but not definitely not as big. Cause these guys don't have to worry about the U.S. coast Guard, which they do have to worry about down there. But it's kind of got like a, I don't know, nice little pirate element to it. This has all sort of come about over the last 25, 30 years. And it's really increased since 2009 to the point now where local heroin addicts, never really a thing in previous generations, is becoming a big problem. France 24 did a report on it last year focusing on the coastal regions of Kenya, like Mombasa, which we'll get to in a minute. In that 2018 paper it said Africa was seeing the largest growth in heroin usage worldwide. But I guess that's compared to other continents, which I guess it makes sense. They call this the southern route. And it's increased cause the route to Western Europe via the Balkans is getting cracked down on. It's sort of like how Mexico opened up when the Caribbean route for cocaine got cracked down on in the 80s. And it's sort of, you know, it's like whack a mole. Like things pop up here, they get shut down, they go there. So Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city, one time capital city. It's a huge port city. I mean we are talking goods and services for tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people across East Africa and further inland. So lots of opportunity there.
- [12:43]
Sean Williams
Yeah, really, really nice place, like super chill, beautiful coastline near Malindi, which is also really nice. And oh man, it reminds me one of the best day or best couple of days of my entire career was taking the so called lunatic line, which is the old British Empire line, down from Nairobi to Mombasa before the Chinese rebuilt it. And I think it was supposed to take, it was supposed to take like saying 16 hours or so. And the train broke down in a village halfway along and we just sat on the tracks for an entire day in a dining car drinking bottles of tusca with like South African mercenaries. And it was one of the days of my life. It was so cool. And I think even when I got to Mombasa, I didn't even do a story. I just sat in a hotel by the pool and then went back to Nairobi. It was awesome. If I can do more stories like that. Well, it wasn't the story, was it? It was just me.
- [13:34]
Danny Gold
Yeah, it's supposed to be a beautiful tourist there. I never made it there, but I did hitchhike from the border of Ethiopia across northern Kenya, which is like wasteland desert to Nairobi. And it was something similar like it was supposed to be. It was like a 400 kilometer trip that took like 36 hours with like a truck driver, just probably on amphetamines. But I'm sure, I mean one thing my uncle talks about is how all those roads now have been built up like we were off road for a lot of that trip. All those roads have been built up and paved by the Chinese so they can, you know, steal more resources as possible. But it's crazy. It's like a completely different trip than it was when I did it 20 years ago. He still does it, his company still does it every year, but wild to
- [14:14]
Sean Williams
think of what you can get the lunatic nine now for like two and a half hours. It's crazy. It's completely changed there now.
- [14:20]
Danny Gold
So yeah, Port of Mombasa, giant port and the opportunities there for these families based along the coast who had been there for generations as traders or importers, usually of like South Asian or Arab descent. You know, they had these networks already in place for normal logistical trade, import, export stuff or even like, you know, we're talking cigarettes, fuel, things like that, where you can make a buck. Says enact quote. In the 1990s, families on the coast of Kenya who had or established links with connections to Pakistani drug networks and European buyers began to transship heroin through the region. These included the well known Akasha family. Reportedly there are other Swahili Arab families from the coastal region involved in the drug trade who are said to have kept a low profile but remain active and successful in the trade. Arab coastal networks have several hundred years of diplomacy behind them. Said one anti corruption activist. They would never threaten you to your face. There is a grace to the way they do things. They cooperate with the drug traffickers operating out of Nairobi. Additionally, there's apparently a Kenyan coastal city, you just mentioned it, a beautiful vacation spot called Malindi that I'd never heard of, which is a hotspot for fugitive mafiosos from Europe. I think a lot of Calabrian Sicilians who have been going there since the 1960s and they've been heavily involved too. They help facilitate these connections.
- [15:36]
Sean Williams
Yeah, you mentioned pirates before and it's like a real interesting place to Swahili coast. I think it's like part of the old Arab empires from Muscat. And it's also the Portuguese ran a lot of that part of the world. So it was, it was like privateers, pirates, raiders. It's always been a bit lawless around that way.
- [15:54]
Danny Gold
Yeah, it's an interesting area, fascinating. But the real people who put this coastline and county on the map and East Africa as a drug trafficking hotspot is the Akasha clan and the godfather, Ibrahim Akasha Abdallah. His origin, it's a bit disputed. Most sources say he's of Palestinian descent, while a few say he's Sudanese. Whatever the case, the father comes to colonial Kenya from Sudan and before that he was in Iraq. There's not much information about what he does or did. But Ibrahim is a young go getter. He's a hustler. He builds a transport business in Mombasa. Some say he actually built up Kenya's national taxi Corporation before selling it to the government. But his main business is called Akasha Transport and it's gonna be the main front for his massive smuggling empire. And one thing to know, I mentioned this briefly about trucking in East Africa and transport and why it's so important in a region like that is that there's really no good rail infrastructure or river infrastructure. There's not a ton of airport infrastructure either. It's a lot of landlocked countries, poor last mile infrastructure, underdeveloped distribution networks. So trucking and transport is of the utmost importance. You figure that out and it's easy money, but it's hard. Although I tell you, from having been in like these extremely untraveled rural areas in that part of the. In the world, two companies that have figured out logistically, Coke and Pepsi. You can find a Coke or a Pepsi in like the most underdeveloped, impossible to reach rural village in the desert of like North Sudan or middle of nowhere Ethiopia. But either way, the logistics of those companies, mind boggling.
- [17:25]
Sean Williams
I think the only time I've ever regularly drank like normal Coke is in the middle of nowhere. I think I did it last in Bougainville because that was the only stuff you can get your hand in on the. But also I remember that Hargiza, which is the capital of Somaliland, which is kind of like a semi independent breakaway part Somalia, that the only factory that was there for like 30 years was a Coke bottling plant. Oh my God, such a cool place. It's like now it's completely gone bonkers, right, because the UAE is fighting over it. The Saudis, the Chinese, everyone wants a piece of Somalia. Even though Al Shabaab is still kind of going strong and the pirates are coming back as well, which is, which is good for the podcast.
- [18:06]
Danny Gold
Yeah, Somalia I think is doing all right. My friend Armin Rosen was just there, big article on it.
- [18:11]
Sean Williams
They're trying to, yeah, there's trying to function. They have a kind of weird thing where they're kind of like holding the piece together by making a bunch of packs with the different clans and like the terror groups and they're just about sort of sticking it together with sticky back plastic. But it's It's a cool place, man. It's really chill as well.
- [18:27]
Danny Gold
Yeah, definitely, definitely go there on Sean's recommendation. And then if you get in trouble, don't blame us. But I say all that to say this. Transport logistics, not for the faint of heart in East Africa. Strangely, though, in 1982, Akasha Transport only has 12 registered vehicles. And a few years later, they're getting in trouble for not paying drivers what they're owed. So the regular transport, not so much a focus. The company mostly stays out of the public eye while Akasha studies the transport business, logistics, shipping, ports, land crossings, and works on his smuggling job. And his main focus at that time is gun running. Small arms all over the region, which was exploding with little conflicts and wars and there's money to be made. But gunrunning in East Africa, or Africa in general, is a tough business with lots of competition, Writes a Kenyan newspaper. Quote. When arms trafficking became even more lucrative, as conflicts escalated across the region, arms traders such as Akasha found themselves fighting even more powerful cartels within the Kenyan government. So we turned to something that seemed less attractive to meddling the drug trade.
- [19:30]
Sean Williams
Shout out to Victor Boot. I mean, that was his bread and butter, right? Shout out to Victor Boot. He was doing it in the 90s.
- [19:36]
Danny Gold
Yeah, hard. Got it completely from political elites in Kenya, apparently involved as well. So Akasha moves full on into this. He's already got networks and he's got himself hooked up in Pakistan with people there who have connections in Afghanistan, where everything is being grown. And he maps it out. Speedboats, warehouses, repacking areas. He starts taking control of the port of Mombasa, which is no small feat. As the shipments get bigger and bigger, the speedboats meet the cargo ships on the high seas, unload the product, and then dock at fishing villages where they're unloaded into cars and taken to warehouses. There's also stuff coming in on some of those bigger cargo ships, and he's going to become the main guy in the 80s and 90s, bringing in hash, opium, heroin and weed into East Africa and then to South Africa and then to Europe, where it's far easier to sell and you can sell it for a lot more. They say that from the mid-80s to 2000, every sizable drug shipment into East Africa, Kenya or the Horn of Africa has Ibrahim or his family with some level of involvement. He's basically becoming the first real drug trafficker, baron, or whatever you want to call it in East Africa. And he and his family get very wealthy and very powerful in a very Short amount of time. He's one of these guys. He dresses impeccably well, I imagine. Lots of linen. He gets the massive villas, the expensive suits and watches, and of course, East Africa. So, you know, he's got the sickest Land Rovers and he's trying to set himself up as the kingpin of the whole region, wholesale to retail, not just the middleman for cartels and bigger drug lords overseas. He's even looking at getting into methamphetamine production in Africa. Weed plantations on Mount Kenya. I mean, these are the real Kenyan cowboys right here. He's got investments in businesses, the typical real estate portfolios in Switzerland, Dubai, Sudan, Lebanon, gas stations, hotels. One of the ways he launders his money is actually, funnily enough, buying treasury bonds. And surely the glory days are going to last forever, right, Sean? I mean, that's what, that's what we're all thinking, right? There's no way this could go belly up. This guy knows what he's doing. I bet that's exactly what you're thinking, isn't it, Sean?
- [21:36]
Sean Williams
Yeah, of course. I mean, everything, everything lasts forever, right? That's the song, I think, that Keo and the Bunnyman. That's the song, yeah.
- [21:43]
Danny Gold
Famously, for a while, it does look like he's untouchable. The Akashas have everyone in Kenya on the take. High up politicians, bankers, top level judges. They're easily washing their money in Kenya's notoriously corrupt banking systems. They've bankrolled law enforcement, police chiefs all the way up to the top. In fact, him and his people are said to have bankrolled the 1992 election win of corrupt Kenyan president Daniel Moi, whose son just happens to be a business associate of the Akashes. They become known for the incredible reach of their bribery. By the mid-90s, Ibrahim Akasha and his people essentially control the port of Mombasa. And they also become known for just not messing around and handling people that get in their way. Contrary to Ibrahim's rep, as a smooth operator, they do make some dummy moves. They like to kidnap people who get on their bad side, no matter who they are, including, like, a contractor who had renovated their house in 1994, who's abducted and beaten in 1995. They actually abduct and kidnapped the Assistant Commissioner of Police in Mombasa, who had gone to their house to question them about an abduction. He's held hostage for more than three hours. And apparently he's so shaken up by it that he doesn't talk about it until 2000. Three years after Ibrahim is killed. So we're talking about the sons. Ibrahim has a number of them. I think he gets married three times, and a bunch of them join him in the drug trade. I think at last count, there was something like 10. They're his lieutenants. They serve as his muscle. Like when he first gets arrested for drug trafficking in 1996. They go with him to the courts. They act as his bodyguard, and they're involved in a physical altercation with journalists, which is kind of a black mark on his record. Though they're able to eventually bribe themselves out of trouble with the courts, the publicity is good for no one. He had usually played the shadows under the radar, somewhat smart, lived by a strict code of rules that kept him out of the spotlight and kept the people who could cause problems for him either living in fear or paid. And this was a deviation from that involving his sons, who we're gonna see deviate from that quite a bit, as the younger generation often does, which is why it's so shocking that, you know, he's arrested in the first place. He had everyone on his payroll. And then in 1998, another one of his sons is arrested in Tanzania for smuggling Mandrax, which we've talked about before. It's a South African Benzo that has a huge number of addicts in South Africa. Super popular there. It's smoked, and they refer to the pills as buttons. The son has jailed but released almost right away. The following year, Ibrahim's younger brother is arrested in Kenya with two Pakistani drug lords who had snuck in a bunch of drugs hidden in bath towels and drinking stalls. All three actually end up jailed for a decade. The whole Akasha clan is being targeted. Son's uncle is the kingpin himself. It causes Ibrahim to look for partners outside his circle, which is something he never really did too much. And he falls in with some Balkan organized crime groups. Here's a Kenny newspaper quote. Akasha's new business model made it harder for him and his family to be exposed, but it also took power away from him. The new reality became evident with the first shipments. A consignment of heroin delivered through the Yugoslav conduits to Munir Barsoom, who forwarded it to the Dutch cartel led by a man called Sam Klepper. According to Dutch police records, Klepper wasn't the original intended customer for the consignment. Still, he refused to pay, triggering a chain of events that left everyone involved in the deal dead. All right, so let's. It's a lot. Let's start at the beginning of this and unpack it. There's a Dutch crime boss by the name of Sam Klepper and he mistakenly gets, maybe mistakenly gets a consignment of heroin organized by Ibrahim Akasha. He refuses to pay this guy, Munir Barsom, who owns a bar in Amsterdam's red light district. This was also set up with a bunch of Yugoslavian gangsters. It's unclear what role they play, but I think they're at the top. Klepper refuses to pay Munir, who is supposed to get the money back in Kenya. Ibrahim kidnaps one of these Yugoslavian gangsters or one of their conduits, demanding the 2.5 million he's owed. But it's not clear whether or not the Yugoslavian is released or killed. All we know is that the Dutch group led by Klepper refuses to pay. Is that clear?
- [25:40]
Sean Williams
Yeah, I reckon. It seems like Klepper is about to get clipped.
- [25:45]
Danny Gold
Is that correct? Yes. And I think actually Munir gave him the consignment, knowing full well it wasn't meant for him. So that's why In December of 1999, Ibrahim Akasha, along with his wife, leave Kenya on a fake passport and head to Amsterdam. He needs to see about that missing money and resolve the conflict with Klepper and the Yugoslavs. Adding to Ibrahim's problems, he's also now technically on the run. At around the same time this drug shipment issue is popping up. One of his villas in Mombasa is raided. There's a ton of hash found there, like a literal ton. And Ibrahim is officially a fugitive and on the run from the Kenyan police. Now Ibrahim's called to Amsterdam by Munir's brother, this guy named Magdi who's going to serve as the mediator. Him and his brother again just appear to be these middlemen a level down from Ibrahim. They own a bar in the red light district. And they're the ones who call Ibrahim to Amsterdam to figure this whole thing out. Magdi, though, isn't actually a problem solver. Well, not in the way Ibrahim would have hoped. Cause that's when we get to our cold open and Ibrahim gets killed. Gunned down in front of his wife in Amsterdam. The Yugoslavians assume Magdi had done the killing or paid someone to do it as ordered to by Klepper, the boss of the Dutch syndicate who refused to pay in that first place. The whole thing is kind of murky, but the Yugoslavians are pissed off. The Yugoslavians are pissed a cuz their man was kidnapped And B, because they just lost their East African heroin connect. And C, Klepper still refuses to pay even though they promptly kill his right hand man. And then four months later, after Ibrahim Akasha's death, Klepper is gunned down as well. Magdi is killed a year later on the same street as Ibrahim Akasha. And his brother Munir is killed in 2004 at a traffic light.
- [27:22]
Sean Williams
Right. Yeah. Who would have thought that any of this would have happened? When you steal a ton of heroin,
- [27:27]
Danny Gold
do not fuck with the Yugoslavian crime cartel's money. But you guys, you listen to the show. You know all that already. I don't need to tell you, you guys have learned that lesson many times that we've mentioned it. Though in later years, some of the Akasha sons would claim that they were at least behind some of the killings. I kind of doubt that. The Dutch police eventually come to believe that Munir sold the drugs to Klepper and that Klepper ordered the murder of Akasha. So Ibrahim Akasha is dead. Shockwaves are sent through the Kenyan underworld and the port of Mombasa. The media reports that he's a billionaire with $100 million estate. And now his sons are going to take over where he left off. There's a leaked WikiLeaks cable where an American diplomat describes what happens at the Kenyan ports, calling it, quote, a falling out among thieves over control of the port. And newer, smaller crime groups are now getting involved with everyone from Russians to South Americans posting up. Yeah.
- [28:19]
Sean Williams
Are the local terror groups working out there too? Because this is like prime Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda kind of, kind of type of time on the, on the Swahili coast, right, When.
- [28:30]
Danny Gold
I don't know about Mombasa, but when the Akasha children, brothers, sons, are eventually indicted, there are statements about the fact of. About accusations of them selling guns to Tal Shabaab.
- [28:42]
Sean Williams
Oh, yeah, that makes sense. So I think there was like a. Well, there was a Mombasa terror attack around this time, I think. Right. A pretty big one that killed a
- [28:49]
Danny Gold
bunch of people now. Yeah, it didn't come up in the, in that, in that research, but yeah, I mean, that would be when Somalia went crazy, right?
- [28:56]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah.
- [28:57]
Danny Gold
Of course. The Akasha clan needs a successor, one son to rule them all. It's not like the rest of them are about to go get normal jobs. But in this world and family businesses in general, you know, things are never quite that simple. At first, his son Kamaldin, who you might remember from the cold open, he's the heir apparent. He's the oldest. He was often a bodyguard for his father. He was seen as something like a consigliere, and he had the same sort of leadership qualities and connections. He'd previously gotten a journalist thrown in jail who was about to write a story about him stealing 4 tons of hash from a police station. This episode is brought to you by Fox 1. Watch all 104 matches of the FIFA World cup live in 4K for just $19.99 a month with 3 days free. Build your own multi view choose up to three streams and follow players Spotlight lights. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights and instant replays. The FIFA World cup, streaming live on Fox One, offers a subject to change. See fox.com for complete terms and conditions. Whatever your thing, it could be anything. Canva helps you make that thing a thing. Canva is a simple online tool thing. It's a way to design with our magic AI tools, things you can social media your thing, generate images or videos of your thing, make decks or presentations to show your thing. Whatever needs to be done for your thing. Canva can make it an even better and bigger thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing.
- [30:28]
Sean Williams
You thought this was your Run club era.
- [30:31]
Danny Gold
Turns out it was more of a
- [30:32]
Sean Williams
thinking about Run club era. The good news? Someone's marathon training is about to start. Sell your workout gear on Depop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. They get their race day fit and
- [30:47]
Danny Gold
you get a payout for trying. Someone on Depop wants what you've got. Start selling now Depop, where taste recognizes taste. So you guys know how hard it is to concentrate these days. Especially when I'm writing these episodes and I'm burned out and dislodged through like 45 articles and five white papers and two documentaries like I did for this one. That's where Magic Mind comes in. The energy concentration focus shot that actually works. They'd reached out, sent us a whole lot of them and let us test them out. Before sponsoring the channel last month, I was telling you guys about their three formulas. We got the free with no caffeine, the max with a whole lot of caffeine for extra long days. And my favorite, the original, which is like the Goldilocks, just right for me. I've been taking the original mental performance shot all month. It honestly just helps me focus, concentrate and get things done without losing steam or getting all jittery. You know, like with other energy drinks or supplements. When your hands get all sweaty and you actually don't get anything done. Magic Mind gives me good energy. It's calm, it lets you think, and I feel sharper. It's got time. Release caffeine and other nootropics that actually work. Now, as they're launching, they have a limited offer, too, for all three formulations. 60% off on your subscription, which is insane. This offer won't be around for long, so I'd really grab it now. I can't recommend it enough if you have a lot of stuff to get done. If you're trying to pile through episodes like me and Sean are, or just, you know, go about your day, that's magicmind.com UnderworldMF or use the code Underworld60 for 60% off. They also have a 100% money back guarantee. If you don't like it, they refund 100%, no questions asked, which basically means you're trying it for free and you can cancel the subscription anytime. That's magicmind.com UnderworldMF or use the code Underworld60 for 60% off. So he was the guy who everyone thought was gonna take over. But as we know from the cold open, he soon meets the same fate as his father. And right when his brothers get to the scene, they blame one of their half brothers, this guy named Tinto, who had apparently been threatening Kamaldin in the weeks before leading up to his death. Tinta was the one in charge of sort of divvying up his father's estate after he died. He had been beefing with some of the other brothers, but making things a bit more complicated. Kamaldin was also suspected of doing a big hash deal and cutting the family out. Another reason why he might have been killed. That deal involved the theft of a huge amount of hash from a Serbian drug dealer who just happened to be a business partner of his father's. This is also in the weeks leading up to Ibrahim's death. It's funny when you put these stories together, involving pieces from different sources and things that don't connect the dots, they don't sort of put these pieces together themselves. I'm wondering now if that hash found in the raid on the Akasha villa that turned Ibrahim into a fugitive, if it was the same hash that was stolen from the Serbian drug dealer, I mean, that would kind of make sense, no? And also if the Serbian drug dealer was part of the Yugoslavian crime organization that was pissed off with a. I don't know. It all seems relatively interconnected, right?
- [33:52]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [33:57]
Danny Gold
Either way, Ibrahim had informed the Serbian drug dealer of what his son had done. He was pissed off. He had threatened both Ibrahim and his son. Eventually, the Akashas end up disregarding Tinta as a suspect and instead blaming this Serbian gangster. And bizarrely, they go after him, but in a weirdly legal way. Here's a Kenya newspaper describing what happens. Quote, the Akasha sons waylaid them in November 2004 as they made their way to Nairobi from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in a bizarre case of citizens arrest involving a mafia family. They chased the car down. This is the car that had the Serbian gangster and one of his buddies pulled them out and drove them to the Grand Regency at gunpoint. They then took them to Central Police Station where the two were charged with Kamal Din's murder. So instead of murdering them, they basically bring them to the police, which, I mean, I don't know, I guess my assumption would be they were scared of the consequences of killing this guy. Like maybe scared of getting dealt with by the Yugoslavians. I also wonder again if they were the same Yugoslavians that were in fact just Serbian gangsters. But I don't know, the way they're described by Ken Amida maybe was stuck in the 80s, who knows?
- [35:03]
Sean Williams
Yeah, I mean I can't speak to these guys character, but I'm guessing a bunch of Serb gangsters wouldn't discern between a guy who shoots at them and a guy who chases them down and shops them into the cops at gunpoint. I would probably, I'd probably do neither of those things.
- [35:19]
Danny Gold
The whole thing is super weird. But the Serbian gangster ends up going on trial. He gets acquitted. In 2007, they actually sue the Akashes for the citizens arrest, which I didn't know was something you could do in Kenya. And the murder of Kham Al Din is still unsolved. Eventually the family settles down and Bakta Akasa emerges as the new kingpin heading up the clan. And Bakta himself is a young go getter and he's got his right hand man, his brother Ibrahim Jr. Who appears to be a bit of a hothead next to him. Well, we'll get to them in a minute. In 2005 though, the Akasha clan pops up on the radar of the dea, which as international drug lords go, especially if you don't ship anything to the us, it's something you want to avoid.
- [36:00]
Sean Williams
Whoopsie.
- [36:00]
Danny Gold
In the fall of that year, the head cop at the Mombasa port calls a press conference and announces that he's broken up a ring of corrupt port officials who helped organize crime, steal containers or confiscated products, which is something that seemed to happen quite often and something the Akashas are caught bragging about on wires. When chemicals or drugs are found and impounded by the port authorities, the Akashas would just bribe whoever was watching them and drive off with all the product, no questions asked. Anyway, three months after this poor cop shaped things up, he's killed outside his home. And the investigator, this guy had been seen as the key to breaking up a new drug route that had opened from Colombia to Kenya, then to Europe. And the feds were fans of him. He seemed like he was a legit cop. They're not happy when he's killed. And the fingers start pointing right away at the Akashes.
- [36:45]
Sean Williams
FYI, that attack was in 2002. So it was like right on when all this is happening. It was an Israeli owned hotel and several planes attacked by the.
- [36:58]
Danny Gold
By the. By Shabab.
- [36:59]
Sean Williams
Right by Shabab, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [37:02]
Danny Gold
I actually remember that now. Planes in Kenya.
- [37:06]
Sean Williams
I think so.
- [37:07]
Danny Gold
Yeah, yeah, I remember them attacking the hotel. Wasn't there a shopping mall? Or was that years later? Was that like 20?
- [37:12]
Sean Williams
The shopping mall was Nairobi, right?
- [37:15]
Danny Gold
That was in Nairobi.
- [37:15]
Sean Williams
That was the big. That was real big.
- [37:17]
Danny Gold
I remember just Tyler Hicks was outside and he like, you know, the famous Times war photographer, and he like, ran inside and got like the most insane photos. That must have been 2014 or 2015.
- [37:28]
Sean Williams
Yeah, I think, you know, Jacob Kushner, I think he was also there when it happened. Yeah, pretty crazy. I think, like, a lot of people got killed in there.
- [37:36]
Danny Gold
Yeah, that mall thing, the photos are insane. Definitely look those up if you guys haven't seen them. All right, back to where we were. We're nearing the end of the 2000s. There's been some infighting among the Akashas as well as in Mombasa and in the Kenya and East African drug game is kind of widening a bit. But the Akashas are still players. They're not the only player. And the East Africa to South Africa to Europe route has gotten bigger, as has the local market for drugs. Among them, heroin rights enact in that 2018 paper. In the mid-2000s, heroin use in the Kenyan counties of Kuali, Khalifi, Mombasa and Lahmu was rife. And heroin users could also be found in Kisumu, a city in the west of Kenya. In South Africa. It was only around 2010 that heroin use began to shift from being predominantly a white middle class Drug problem and started becoming prevalent in poor black and Indian townships. So the drug market and the movers in it are starting to garner headlines internationally. And the local consumption market is starting to grow to a point where there's a lot more money to be made than there was 10 years ago. And the Ankashas, they want to take advantage of this in 2013. The Klan are making power moves, looking to get into not just heroin there, but manufacturing of mandrax and meth, setting up factories as well as keeping up with heroin. They're also getting a little sloppy. And by sloppy, I mean the worst kind of sloppiness. That's right, Sean. They become posters.
- [39:00]
Sean Williams
Oh, thank God. I thought you were gonna say something about clubbing in Berlin, which is. That's sloppy, but different kind.
- [39:07]
Danny Gold
No, this is worse. They get on the ground.
- [39:10]
Sean Williams
I don't know. You weren't there.
- [39:11]
Danny Gold
Yeah, that's true. I don't. Ibrahim Jr. Does not share his father's sense of discretion. Kenya media reports quote, In February 26, 2013, after social media had calmed down about that year's Valentine's Day and the roses received around the country had started to wither and die, stem by stem, which is very poetic for a newspaper, by the way. Great stuff. Kenyan media. Ibrahim announced himself. He posted a photo of a pearl white Mercedes Benz parked outside his palatial home in the alley. The next photo was a selfie of him straight faced, holding bundles of $100 notes. The caption was simple for da ladies. For him, Valentine's Day had just begun. Which again, another amazing line. Kenyan journalist.
- [39:55]
Sean Williams
So good.
- [39:55]
Danny Gold
And from then on he went in, he went on an all out photo session on his social media accounts, displaying copious amounts of wealth. He also does stuff.
- [40:04]
Sean Williams
Oh, that is.
- [40:05]
Danny Gold
Yeah, it's great, dude. I mean, go look these photos up if you can. He also does stuff like post the photos of a guy he beat up when the guy is lying in the ICU after he bribes the doctors to be allowed to do so. Which, I mean, it's gotta be a serious violation of the Hippocratic oath. You know what I'm talking about? By the way, if you haven't watched the Pit. Honestly, just incredible TV listeners. Go watch the Pit if you can.
- [40:28]
Sean Williams
Oh God, it's just every day with this guy. Watch the Pit. Watch the Pit. Look, I'm my own man, man. I'm a free thinker. That's why I watch old clips of curbed on YouTube every day nonstop.
- [40:40]
Danny Gold
Yeah, there's also a minute 30 clips of the Sopranos that you can just rewatch for hours every day like I do.
- [40:45]
Sean Williams
Every Soprano's breath, every Soprano's death. That 30 minute video has been watched about 20 times by me.
- [40:52]
Danny Gold
That reminds me that I forgot to mention a mistake I made in a previous episode about the Sopranos. A relative of mine was very upset about this, demanded I made it make a mistake. I forgot to identify the person who was murdered by the two Italians who kill him in the driveway. When we talked about the Sopranos like hit, which was Rusty, the mayor of Munchkinland, as he's known. So he was the one who was killed by the two Italians in that drive by and the Sopranos like hit that. What was that about?
- [41:17]
Sean Williams
It's. I don't remember. But it's incredibly telling that the one correction you make on this show is actually about Sopranos episode.
- [41:26]
Danny Gold
There have been other corrections, but that's a big one. You know though, when I read these reports of like the Akashes being responsible for this unparalleled level of bribery never before seen in Kenya, I'm thinking like, sure, like judges, prosecutors, politicians, but emergency room doctors so you can get to the ICU and take a photo of a guy you beat up. It is truly like a new level, you know, rough. Yeah. So they use this level of purchase immunity to do what needs to be done. Bakta allegedly orders the murder of a rival gangster in South Africa known as Pinky. And he's shot 32 times and killed. I mean, South African gangsters though are no joke, right? There's way more competition and violence than Kenya, East Africa. When Baktas gets the news, he's so over the moon, he starts playing celebratory music, dancing and shooting his gun in the air. Now the reason Pinky had to die is that he had sworn he was gonna kill the Akashas after they'd beaten up his boss, a South African drug lord who was also tied up in Kenya. A real mover and shaker. Probably using the porch as well. Cause he had a Kenyan politician in his pocket, deep in his pocket. So deep that this politician, after the beating accost the Akashas in the Mombasa City mall and gets into a physical like fight with them. At one point wrestling Boktash onto the floor before Ibrahim pulled a gun on him and threatened to kill him right then and there to the point where it causes a scene in the mall. People are ducking on their tables and stuff like that. The brothers, of course, later go to the local police station they bribe their way out of getting charges.
- [42:55]
Sean Williams
Insane.
- [42:55]
Danny Gold
But in the midst of all this, the Akashas are actually really burying themselves. Cause sometime in 2013, 2014, the DEA decide the Akashas are big enough of a problem that it's time to take them down. And they do this by sending an informant posing as a wealthy gangster, who in turn introduces them to a second informant pretending to work for Colombian drug traffickers who are looking to move heroin into the US and the ACAs, who probably aren't used to, like, you know, serious law enforcement, they jump right in. I mean, if random strangers try to convince you to start moving weight into the US when you've never done that before in decades of being in the drug game, you think that alarm bells would sound and like, start going off. But, like, probably after decades of bribing their way out of everything and dealing with incompetent law enforcement, these guys, they had a certain level of hubris, you know, arrogance, chutzpah, if you will.
- [43:45]
Sean Williams
Another one. It's one more. I can't think of another one.
- [43:48]
Danny Gold
That's all I got. That's all I got right there. But yeah, yeah, it just. I don't. I don't know, it seems ridiculous to me to be like, oh yeah, these guys who we've never met, they want to start shipping things to the US and they come to us like, let's jump in on this, man. Like, why not?
- [44:03]
Sean Williams
You know, it's the big time. It's America, baby. Gotta get.
- [44:07]
Danny Gold
I don't know, dude. For eight months, these two informants wear a wire and get the inkashas on a whole list of things. For example, one brother tells them, quote, we were born into wealth by our name. The name is big. And so whoever comes and wherever they come from, and they say this name, they know we are drug dealers. I get the impression the youngster is the younger generation. Not that smart. You know, they say things about wanting to move top quality heroin to the land of Obama, which not the most indecipherable code. My guys, like, not exactly windtalkers over here.
- [44:37]
Sean Williams
Isn't that Kenya?
- [44:39]
Danny Gold
What, the windtalkers.
- [44:41]
Sean Williams
The land of Obama.
- [44:43]
Danny Gold
Nice. Nicely done. Reads an article in the San Diego Tribune. Quote, he reached out to suppliers, including one in the Afghanistan Pakistan region. That road you've asked me for all these years, the road has come. Akasha told the supplier about the opportunity to expand to America. Talk to your partners, your people. The way has come in a proper way. And it's not just heroin and mandrax they're also looking again to meth manufacturing, I think. As I mentioned reads a DEA indictment during a meeting in Mombasa, Kenya, in April 2014. Bakta Akasha introduces a confidential source via Skype to one of his heroin suppliers in Pakistan who said he could provide 420 kilograms of 100% pure heroin, which he called diamond quality, for distribution in the US thereafter. In June 2014, Goswami, who's an Indian drug lord we'll get to in a second, began discussing with the confidential sources his ability to procure methamphetamine precursor chemicals and to establish labs to produce methamphetamine for importation to the US. In a meeting in Mubasa in September 2014, Baktas introduced Hussein as a narcotics transporter from Afghanistan who moves ton quantities of narcotics using ships. Baktas, Akasha and Goswami describe the supplier of heroin for their deal with the confidential sources, to whom they refer to as the Sultan, as the top supplier of white heroin in the world.
- [46:01]
Sean Williams
I mean, do you think at this point we could just go into criminal organizations as like a KPMG kind of management consultancy? Because I don't know, Skype, I mean, there's plenty of other red flags here. I reckon you could probably sort their operation out in an afternoon and charge them quite a lot for it.
- [46:19]
Danny Gold
They're just not the brightest you would assume they were, but I believe they probably get arrogant about it or high in their own supply.
- [46:25]
Sean Williams
Again, though, for the ladies.
- [46:27]
Danny Gold
DEA indictments, so accusations, but I mean, they had tapes and tapes, so probably legit. And we'll get into who Goswami is and the Sultan are in a minute, but they're drug lords basically, and partners. So Baktash and Ibrahim Jr end up arranging for 99 keys of heroin to be delivered to their fake Columbia connections, who are DA employees, and then two keys of meth. And the DA are just like listening to this whole thing, but they're about to move on them. They link up with a select few Kenyan authorities. They're taking no chances because of all the bribery and literally hand pick the officers that are gonna go on the raid with them only days before. This is November 2014. They set up shop in a mansion across from the Akasha mansion. And then with everyone in Place, at 1am, they raid the villa and confiscate all manners of electronics, phones, laptops, cars. While bagging up, the brothers, Baktosh and Ibrahim Junior are arrested that day in Mombasa. And apparently there's 500 additional kilos of heroin that are on their way. But the ship is turned around after the brothers are able to get phones and messages out while in custody. But the Akashas don't stay locked up long Even though the DEA and the feds are involved. Even the 2015 when an indictment comes out in New York federal court for planning to smuggle that heroin and meth into the US that is requesting extradition. The Akashas are out on bail, continuing to do what they do. And of course that extradition request from the US to Kenya stalls out. And it stalls out cuz again the Akashes have learned from their father. They bribe everyone. Judges, prosecutors, cops, whoever they can and they get right back to doing what they do. They're working with this Indian drug lord whose name is Vicky Goswami at this point who might deserve his own episode. He's mentioned in that DEA indictment and he's got a hell of a resume. He's a former pilot. He was making money hand over Fist in the 90s Shipping cases of Mandrax daily to South Africa from Mumbai on planes. At some point though, he gets arrested and does a decade of prison in Dubai. He's sentenced to life but is of course able to bribe his way out. When he gets out, he relocates to Kenya. This is around the 2010s, and at some point he teams up with the Akashes. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com/switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com Athletic Brewing Company Crafts Award winning non alcoholic beers for those who want to be part of every round. With over 185 flavor awards, they're exceptional NA beers that fit your lifestyle and any social occasion. Summer's full of good times and Athletic fits right in. Go to athleticbrewing.com to have brews delivered to your door or find them at a bar, restaurant or store near you near beer athletic brewing company fit for all times. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good News. The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp, Cursor and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started@vanta.com.
- [49:55]
Sean Williams
okay, this is insane, but I just remembered what I was doing in Mombasa when I went there and it was trying to cover this story.
- [50:01]
Danny Gold
Are you serious?
- [50:03]
Sean Williams
Yeah, I remember like, I was like, this is all ringing a bell. And then I saw that indictment. I was like, I know, I've read this before. And I think I went down to Malindi. I went to a bar and spoke to a sex worker there.
- [50:15]
Danny Gold
At a bar. Yeah.
- [50:16]
Sean Williams
And she was Italian. Yeah, of course I did. And she was Italian and she worked for the Mafia, the Sicilian Mafia. And so there were loads of. There were loads of mobsters from Europe rocking up there and trying to get in on this exact drug route. And I remember trying to look into it and it was scary. But yeah, I mean, I did nothing with it. But now I remember what I was doing for a few hours in Malindi and it's. It's trying to do this, which I failed to do.
- [50:44]
Danny Gold
Did Goswami. Did his name come up, do you remember, or.
- [50:46]
Sean Williams
No, I don't remember that, no.
- [50:48]
Danny Gold
Did he come up in one of your episodes about the new Indian dons that we did like, early on?
- [50:53]
Sean Williams
I feel like he might have come up in one of. He's probably come up in one of our shows. We've done so many of these, but. Sounds like an interesting character, man.
- [51:02]
Danny Gold
I'm sure this is fascinating story. He claims at one point that Indian Intel, India's intelligence, tried to hire him to kill Dawood Ibrahim, which is why I brought up that episode.
- [51:14]
Sean Williams
Oh, nuts. Yeah. I mean, probably. I wouldn't put it past them.
- [51:18]
Danny Gold
Yeah, so that's something we need to. I mean, I saved a couple of big articles about him, so it'd be super fascinating to look into that more.
- [51:25]
Sean Williams
But speaking of Dubai. Yeah.
- [51:27]
Danny Gold
One of their plans involves building a meth factory in Mozambique. And in 2016, the Indian Police trace a number of massive shipments of ephedrine, which is one of the primary chemicals used to make meth, to Goswami. But he's already wrapped up, as we'll see. Wright's one Kenya newspaper. Almost every drug haul in Kenya the last 15 years, and there have been many, have had suspected links to the new dons of the Akasha clan. Although there are now new players in the business, most of whom cut their teeth under the elder Ibrahim Akasha, the Klan remains one of the primary players, writes another. Other than South Africa, the Akasha's invested in a mandrax operation in Zimbabwe, worked with heroin traffickers in Tanzania, and bought weapons from the Al Shabaab terror group. The US government's case was also mentioned. US government's case also mentioned that the traffickers met the Ugandan president's sister in law to discuss methods of illegally employment ephedrine into Uganda. It is reputed she agreed to provide a license in exchange for a percentage of the profits. So the Kenyan authorities of course, are on the take.
- [52:25]
Sean Williams
2.
- [52:26]
Danny Gold
The Akashes have bribed things up so nicely, they no longer feel any pretense about needing to lay low. They're actively setting up meth factories and moving weight all over. But according to an article in the San Diego Tribune, they go a step too far and they get involved with selling poached ivory, which, I mean, honestly, dude, like heroin is one thing, killing a rival dope dealer, whatever, but like if you're involved in killing rhinos and elephants, dude, like that's, that's just too far. Like they should go after you, you know?
- [52:53]
Sean Williams
Yeah, man, that reminds me, I got a, like an exclusive coming up on this show. I don't know if I'm gonna make it a main show yet, but there's a guy in Zimbabwe who's basically an African Joe exotic who is in the bloodline business. It's really, really cool. I've been looking into it for ages through a listener actually. So shout out to that guy. But yeah, that's nuts, man. I'll be doing it soon.
- [53:15]
Danny Gold
Dude, poachers, man. Like honestly, they need to. Especially the ones who go up. The rhinos, dude, come back. Anyway, this story from the San Diego Tribune is wild. I don't the merits of it, who knows. But it details how two women, one a former Department of Defense employee and the other a journo, together they leave their jobs and create the center on illicit networks and transnational organized crime, Cintalk, which great name, which they first focus on poaching in Africa. And they do this first big project on ivory trafficking routes in east and South Africa. And they partner up with an AI company called Symantec. Reads the article, quote, they started, as they often do, with records. They'd go to local cops, magistrate judges, rangers, even poachers in jail and come away with leaked seizure documents, shipping manifests, company Registries, Cumberland field notes, social media tips and cell phone records. One by one, the intel, some of it in Swahili, some of it handwritten, would be entered into Symantec's program. They worked up the supply chain, mapping the ivory trail from Tanzania where the elephants were slaughtered to Mombasa for shipment to Asia where ivory remains in high demand. The woman also started to see a distinct overlap of front companies used to export ivory, also used to traffic drugs. It led back to The Akashes.
- [54:28]
Sean Williams
Wow. ChatGPT does investigative journalism.
- [54:32]
Danny Gold
I mean, who knows dude, but we should work for them anyway. So killing elephants for the TUs in Africa and selling it in Asia is not something US federal agencies tend to get involved with. But the woman had all these info that they showed that showed drug trafficking evidence as well. And they start helping the feds who are already interested in the Akashes map everything out. They're able to tie 30 tons of ivory trafficking to the Akashas. And with the extradition stuff all tied up in the corrupt canyon system, according to this article, the DEA realizes that ivory trafficking might carry more weight there. Even though it doesn't matter in the US Says the Tribune quote, the ivory evidence ultimately provided the political will for the extradition. They got the US government's and Kenyan government's attention. The extradition became politically expedient for the president of Kenya. A win win for him. The ambassador of Kenya at that time was very proud elephant. We were able to go in behind the scenes and get save the elephants to advocate for the extradition, which I'm pro elephant. Someone being pro elephant like means that there's probably someone who's, who's anti elephant. Right?
- [55:34]
Sean Williams
You don't see them on the streets these days, but maybe they're, maybe they're organized.
- [55:37]
Danny Gold
I'm very pro elephant and I wouldn't tolerate someone who was anti elephant, to be honest with you. Okay, so January of 2017, the US feds apparently get sick of waiting around. The Kenyans are on board cuz some of the Kenyans are on board cuz the IV trafficking. And they get it together, they move on them. On January 27th they get the Akasha brothers and they don't take any chances this time. Within three days they're bundled up and shipped to the US Rapid fire extradition. I think some people in Kenya were likely pissed off. Later they get this Pakistani drug lord known as the Sultan X Ray to the US that had been providing them with heroin. He's arrested in London. He was a high roller there on the polo circuit. Just like a young Sean Williams. And he owned a 5 million pound house in Berkshire, which I assume is nice.
- [56:21]
Sean Williams
I like that one. I like being rich and polo player instead of a degenerate sex addict, which I usually am in this show.
- [56:28]
Danny Gold
Have you spent time on the polo circuit?
- [56:30]
Sean Williams
No, but I'm about to move to Buenos Aires, so, you know, is that big that's gonna happen? Yeah, it's massive.
- [56:36]
Danny Gold
Polo doesn't. The circuit doesn't interest me. But like whacking things with a croquet mallet while on a horse does seem pretty cool.
- [56:42]
Sean Williams
Yeah, it looks quite fun. And also extremely dangerous. My, my missus really wants to do it and I don't know about that. Man, this looks dangerous.
- [56:50]
Danny Gold
Can you, can you hit people with your, with your extra long?
- [56:53]
Sean Williams
I mean, I guess, I guess accidentally. Not accidentally. Yeah, sure. But you might also hit a horse in the face, so that's not fun.
- [57:02]
Danny Gold
Yeah, the horses must be insane. I'm gonna watch some, some, some polo.
- [57:07]
Sean Williams
Yeah.
- [57:08]
Danny Gold
Interestingly, there's some analysis I've seen that said the Akashes had stopped paying their requisite bribes to politicians in the lead up to their rapid fire extradition. But who knows if that's true. Once in the US system, Goswami turns state's evidence and I think the Sultan does too. Like we said, you know, there's eight months of informants wearing wires like you don't stand a chance. They're all locked down. In 2018, Bakta and Ibrahim Jr plead guilty to the US drug trafficking charges. 2019, Bakta gets sentenced 25 years. Ibrahim, I think it's 23 years. And the Akasha clan pretty much wiped out. But the drug trade in East Africa is still growing. Here's a last quote from that enact paper. In Kenya, drug traffickers have decided to campaign directly for political office. In Mozambique, drug traffickers have consolidated their hold over the market in a remarkably resilient and long standing quid pro quo with the political elite in these countries. Heroin profits play disposal, discreet and identifiable role in providing campaign and patronage finance to political figures. So still going off in East Africa, Lots of money being made, lots of politicians being bribed.
- [58:11]
Sean Williams
All right, Africa is corrupt. Is that, Is that the TLDL?
- [58:15]
Danny Gold
I mean, I think we are TL'd. Whatever doctor is everywhere is pretty much corrupt. But you know, if you can bribe politicians in rich countries, probably bribe politicians in poor countries, you know.
- [58:25]
Sean Williams
Yeah, correct. Yeah. TLDR. Yeah.
- [58:28]
Danny Gold
Anyway. Patreon.com General Podcast Sorry, my throat's going out and sign up for bonus episodes. Sign up for early episodes, ad free episodes and get merch. That's it.
- [58:51]
Sean Williams
Sam.
- [59:16]
Danny Gold
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