Wanted wildlife trafficker Abdi Hussein extradited to US

Wildlife and drugs trafficker Abdi Hussein Ahmed has been extradited to the United States following his arrest in Meru county of Kenya last week.

According to the Kenya Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Abdi Hussein was found hiding in a house he had rented in Maua area. He was nabbed during a raid by detectives from the Serious Crimes Unit on August 30 after a tip-off which was received by the directorate via its anonymous hotline.

Hussein is wanted in the US following his indictment in a $7 million protected wildlife species trafficking case alongside members of an international trafficking ring comprising Moazu Kromah, Amara Cherif and Mansur Mohamed , involved in the poaching of more than 35 rhinoceros and 100 elephants.

A statement by the DCI said From December 2012 through May 2019, Ahmed and his co-conspirators conspired to transport, distribute, sell and smuggle at least approximately 190 kilograms of rhinoceros horns and at least 10 tons of elephant ivory from various countries in East Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania, to buyers located in the United States and countries in Southeast Asia.

According to the US Justice Department, the suspects are members of a transnational criminal enterprise dubbed the “Enterprise” based in Uganda and surrounding countries that was engaged in the large-scale trafficking and smuggling of rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory.