Detained fugitive's whereabouts unknown as Mombasa officials disclaim knowledge

Mohammed Surur alias Mansur, a fugitive wanted in the US for alleged drug and ivory trafficking, had chartered a plane from Yemen to Kenya to escape arrest by Interpol.

Yesterday, his whereabouts remained unknown as his relatives camped outside Port police station seeking answers. A top government official in Nairobi told The Standard that Surur was transferred from Mombasa on Wednesday night to an unknown location.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that he could have been spirited to the US because authorities are apprehensive of long and complicated extradition proceedings that could stall for years.

In Mombasa, relatives camped at Port police station and later at the Mombasa High Court expecting to see him there.

Last evening Wachira Guyo from the Attorney General's Office and Alloys Okemo from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution DPP told The Standard that they had not received any notification of extradition proceedings at the courts in regard of Surur.

The Registry at the magistrate and High Court had no information on Surur, fuelling fears that he was either being held in some secret jail or had been transferred to a foreign nation.

Mansur disguised his escape by paying air tickets for 32 Kenyans who had been stranded in Yemen following the outbreak of the pandemic that shut all flights. The passengers were taken into quarantine.

According to security sources Mansur had postponed the departure time four times to confuse the Interpol. He was arrested upon landing at the Moi International Airport at 1:30am. Mansur, 60, hails from Moyale in Marsabit.