NEW YORK/LONDON: Lahore gold trader and Pakistani national Muhammad Asif Hafeez has pleaded guilty in the US to drug trafficking charges after he was accused in a global drugs case also implicating Bollywood star Mumta Kulkarni and her husband Vicky Goswami, a Mandrax mastermind from India who once detailed how he and his allies were hell-bent on dominating South Africa’s drug trade.
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has confirmed that Hafeez — also called the “Sultan of Drugs”, “the big boss” and “number one in the world” by the US law enforcement — pled guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to import heroin, methamphetamine, and hashish into the US.
He pled guilty before US Magistrate Judge Stewart D Aaron and will be sentenced by US District Judge Victor Marrero.
Originally from Lahore but based mostly in Dubai and London, Hafeez was arrested in London on August 25, 2017, and extradited to the US on May 12, 2023.
He was imprisoned at the Belmarsh Prison where this correspondent met him and interviewed him about his side of the complicated story.
He put up a strong legal fight lasting six years but eventually his appeal at the European Court of Human Rights was also rejected and he was extradited last year to the US. He had denied all allegations and stressed he was a victim of conspiracies.
US Attorney Damian Williams said: “For more than two decades, Muhammad Asif Hafeez played a leading role in a sophisticated international drug trafficking network that was responsible for manufacturing and distributing ton quantities of dangerous narcotics to the US and throughout the world. The plea ensures that one of the world’s most prolific drug traffickers will be held accountable for his crimes.”
According to the allegations contained in indictments charging Hafeez, from 2013 through the date of his London arrest in 2017, conspired with his co-defendants, Baktash Akasha Abdalla, Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, Gulam Hussein, and Vijaygiri Anandgiri Goswami to import heroin into the US. Each of these offences carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Baktash was the leader of an organised crime family in Kenya (the “Akasha Organisation”), which was responsible for the production and distribution of ton quantities of narcotics within Kenya and throughout Africa and maintained a network used to distribute narcotics for importation into the US.
During this investigation, in October 2014, Ibrahim delivered a one-kilogram heroin sample, on behalf of Hafeez and the Akasha Organisation, to confidential sources acting at the direction of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Nairobi, and, in early November 2014, he delivered 98 additional kilogrammes of heroin to the confidential sources.
These samples were just a small portion of the narcotics that Hafeez distributed with the Akasha Organisation; indeed, during this investigation, Baktash boasted in a recorded meeting that Hafeez had distributed “tonnes” of narcotics with his father and the Akasha Organisation.
Baktash, Ibrahim, and Goswami were arrested by Kenyan authorities in November 2014 and extradited to the US in 2017.
The US indictment also alleges that Hafeez has been involved in the drug trade from about 1993 through 2017, allegedly conspired to import hashish and methamphetamine into the US.
In connection with this conspiracy, Hafeez and co-conspirators transported multi-ton shipments of hashish to Europe and North America.
Between 2013 and 2016, the US says, Hafeez and certain co-conspirators also sought to establish a methamphetamine-production facility in Mozambique, which was intended to produce methamphetamine for sale in the US, Europe, and Australia.
Baktash, 47, and Ibrahim, 36, previously pled guilty to conspiring to import heroin and methamphetamine into the US.
Baktash was sentenced on August 16, 2018, to 25 years in prison, and Ibrahim was sentenced on January 10, 2020, to 23 years in prison.
Bollywood-linked Goswami testified in the US in 2019 about drug trafficking.
A transcription of Goswami’s testimony said he had previously met people, including representatives from the factory, at a hotel in Kenya. Goswami then decided to become a cooperating prosecution witness against all his former accomplices. He is still wanted in India over the Solapur ephedrine factory case.
Lawyers and family of Hafeez said they cannot comment on the guilty plea because there are “protective orders” in place which prohibit them.
