One of the known drug traffickers in the coastal region Swaleh Ahmed Yusuf, aka Kendereni (Candy Rain) is dead.
Police said he was found dead Sunday, March 17 in Kilifi days after his abduction by unknown people.
He is said to have inherited the Akasha drug empire at Kenya’s Coast.
Swaleh’s body was discovered at Kiruwitu near Vipingo in Kilifi on Sunday, nine days after he was allegedly picked up by individuals who identified themselves as police for interrogation.
Swaleh’s death marks the end of an era for a man who was eager to take over Ibrahim Akasha’s drug empire after his sons, Baktash Akasha, and Ibrahim Akasha, were extradited to the US to face drug trafficking charges.
They were later sentenced to 25 and 23 years in prison, respectively.
Swaleh had become the new face of drug trafficking on the Coast, as evidenced by the number of drug cases and the value of the substances he was accused of trafficking.
The body had injuries to the head, police said.
Swaleh’s lawyer Jared Magolo said his client was killed after being taken in for questioning.
“They killed him. His body was found in Kilifi.
He was arrested about nine days ago,” Magolo said.
Swaleh has been battling several criminal charges linked to a multi-million-shilling drug trafficking and money laundering operation in Coast.
Swaleh operated from Mombasa.
He is behind the importation and distribution of heroin to various drug dens and cartels within and outside the coast region.
For instance, on October 26, 2018, he was charged at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Law Courts in Nairobi with trafficking 91,738 grams of heroin valued at Sh275 million.
He was charged alongside Fatuma Ahmed with “trafficking by storing” heroin, which police found hidden in suitcases and a gunny bag in Kikambala, Kilifi County.
In 2010, Swaleh was jailed for 25 years for trafficking five kilograms of heroin, while in 2011 and 2013, he was separately charged with the Mombasa Law.
He was first convicted and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in 1996 for trafficking in heroin. He sent to Shimo La Tewa Prison in Mombasa.
On March 8, 2023, Swaleh was jailed for 10 years after he was found guilty of money laundering.
This was after he and his wife Asma Abdalla Mohamed were found to have engaged in an agreement to buy tour motor vehicles worth Sh7.6 million on February 4, 2017, using proceeds of drug trafficking.
Officials said the convicts purchased two vehicles within months and paid Sh6.2 million with a view of concealing the source of the said money.
He was released on appeal.
With the help of his family, who are in the drug business in Tanzania, Swaleh has managed to smuggle the drugs from Tanzania.
He is also behind the 92 kilograms of drugs seized in September 2017, one of the largest drug consignments to be seized in history.
Swaleh had not only accumulated a lot of wealth from drug trafficking but also through money laundering, police claimed.
He has been arrested severally for his involvement in drug trafficking but he left jail on appeal to continue operating freely.
Swaleh’s murder also comes just a month after the national government, led by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, declared a crackdown on drug trafficking on the Coast.
Swaleh has been working with mules who distribute heroin to various drug dens from which hundreds of youths can access the drugs, police say.
According to investigators, the drugs also find their way into nightclubs and some hotels where both local and foreign tourists can access the drugs.
Some of the drug peddlers are also associated with criminal groups involved in muggings within the Kisauni, Bombolulu, Majengo, and Likoni areas.
Police believe he was the remaining head of the drug trafficking gang in the area.
According to police, Swaleh had managed to smuggle the drugs from Tanzania with the help of his family who are also in the drug business.
The deceased who resided in Kikambala also ran an elaborate money laundering scheme which he used to launder the drug trafficking proceeds.
“He has several till numbers which money is deposited into and owns several Mpesa shops in Mtwapa and Kikambala shopping centers.”
After the death of Bosire Nyaigoti one of his key distributors, Swaleh started working with Swaleh Taim Mgoshi one of the drug dealers in Kwale County.
On Saturday, October 14, 2023, in Malindi Town, police from the counter–organized crime unit in Mombasa arrested Benta AKinyi Ogola, a narcotic distributor operating within the area, and seized a kilogram of narcotics suspected to be heroin.
Benta had traveled to Mombasa on a narcotic sourcing mission and was on her way back when she was intercepted.
The accused was presented before Malindi law court on October 16 and pleaded not guilty to the offense of trafficking narcotic drugs.
Police say she sourced the drugs from Swaleh.
This comes in the backdrop of a recent National Drug Survey by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) indicating widespread abuse of prescription medication.
DCI conducted operations where traditional dealers in hard drugs were arrested while in possession of assorted prescription pills pointing to a shortage of heroin.
The report indicated that subscriptions for harm reduction clinics where methadone maintenance treatment is used to treat opioid dependence have increased especially in the coastal city of Mombasa.
The opioid-dependent takes a daily dose of methadone as a liquid or pill which reduces withdrawal symptoms and cravings for opioids.
In the report, the medications commonly abused were identified as codeine, dextromethorphan, noscapine, morphine, caffeine, ketamine, and papaverine.
The government is now looking at measures to curb the proliferation and availability of the medications in the market.
Police have intensified operations to address the menace.
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