Fugitive on US Wanted List arrested in Mombasa

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested Abubakar Mansur Surur at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa.

Surur, who is flagged on the United States Wanted list arrived in Kenya from Yemen, aboard a chartered aircraft on Wednesday.

The suspect, 60, is wanted for poaching offences among others.

“The suspect is in lawful custody awaiting further processing,” DCI said in a tweet.

Reports say that he returned to the country alongside forty-six other Kenyans who were stranded in Yemen.

In June 2019, the suspect faced charges alongside three others over a conspiracy to smuggle at least 190 kilograms of rhinoceros horns and at least 10 tons of elephant ivory valued at more than $7 million.

He has for long been on the radar of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over drug trafficking and distribution allegations.

A court report by Ace News last year quoted Special Agent in Charge Tersigni as saying: “These suspected criminal masterminds not only conspired to traffic huge amounts of heroin to New York but also directed a multimillion-dollar poaching scheme to traffic in rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory – both endangered wildlife species. DEA investigations throughout the world consistently illustrate the lengths and heinous acts these global criminal individuals and networks will commit to further their illicit enterprises.”

Again in 2018, Surur and another suspect Ahmed, conspired to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 10 kilograms of heroin to a buyer who was located in New York.

Surur is a member of a transnational criminal enterprise involved in ivory trading in East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Senegal, and Mozambique.