Kenyan court frees 4 key suspected drugs traffickers on bail

A Kenyan court on Monday released four key suspected drug traffickers on 55,600 U.S. dollar bail each and two sureties of similar amount.

Mombasa Court Chief Magistrate Maxwell Gicheru granted bail to two sons of slain drug baron Ibrahim Akasha and two other suspects who are facing extradition to the U.S. over alleged drug trafficking.

Gicheru, however, ordered the four drug trafficking suspects to surrender their passports as well as declare their occupation and stop travelling outside the country without knowledge of the police. The ruling to determine their extradition will be issued on Tuesday.

The formal extradition process has already commenced for the four who are wanted in Washington over an international drug cartel after a warrant of arrest was issued against them by a U.S. court over narcotics importation conspiracy charges.

The two Akashas were among four men arrested on Nov. 9 after months of investigations by Kenyan police and America's Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

The two other suspects are Indian Vijaygiri Anandgiri Goswami and Pakistani Kulam Hussein Shabakash.

In the U.S., the four are to face trial on allegations of being part of an international drug trafficking ring.

The UN has identified East African nation as a drug transport hub for drugs going to Europe from Asia and Middle East. Hardly a week passes without an arrest of drug traffickers at the main airport.

Traffickers have increasingly become smatter because of improved surveillance at the airports and have now resorted to using roads to reach their intended destinations.

The tragedy for Kenya has been the fact that some of the drugs have filtered into the country with cocaine and heroin being blamed for the drug use epidemic that is currently being contained in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa. Enditem