Mansur Surur, alias Mansour, a Kenyan who is on the United States of America’s most-wanted list of runagates has this morning been nabbed at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa.
Here is the video courtesy of Daily Nation.
Mansur is wanted by several agencies for his involvement in drug trafficking, illegal trade of rhino horns and elephant ivory. Interpol had laid a trap on Mansour soon after they were alerted that he’s landing in Kenya from Yemen. He was among 47 Kenyans stranded in Yemen who were returning home on a Chartered Skyward Express flight
“Today morning at 01.00 hrs…holder of Passport number A2283881 and Kenyan ID card no.0069184 who had been flagged as wanted in the US for ivory related offences was arrested at the arrival terminals at Moi International Airport…He was subsequently handed over to Interpol Nairobi for further action,” a police report of the arrest reads.
According to Interpol, Mansour involved the illegal poaching of more than 35 rhinos and more than 100 elephants valued at more than Sh700,000,000 ($7 million).
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Mr Surur and Abdi Hussein Ahmed, aka “Abu Khadi,” are fugitives previously charged with money laundering, as well as participating in a conspiracy to distribute more than 10 kilogrammes of heroin.
For the past 8 years, Mr Surur, Mr Ahmed and two others conspired to transport, distribute, sell and smuggle at least about 190 kilogrammes of rhino horn and at least 10 tonnes of elephant ivory. Mansour is alleged to be sourcing the wildlife parts came from various countries in East Africa including Uganda, DR Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania.
Interpol has documents from August 2018 through May 2019 directly linking Surur and Mr Ahmed to illegal distribution and possession with intent to distribute more than 10 kilogrammes of heroin to a buyer located in New York.
Mansour was trapped after he and his accomplices allegedly received and deposited payments from foreign customers that were sent in the form of international wire transfers through US financial institutions.
The fugitives smuggle rhino horns and elephant ivory to buyers in US and countries in Southeast Asia in packaging that concealed as pieces of art like African masks and statues.
Mohamed Surur and Abdi Hussein Ahmed were implicated on June 12 last year when Interpol nabbed Moazu Kromah, a Liberian citizen codenamed “Kampala Man,” in Uganda.
The very next day, Kromah found himself standing in a federal courthouse in New York City as a judge read the charges against him–among them, conspiracy to sell rhino horns and elephant ivory valued at $7.4 million.
