High-profile poaching suspect to be tried in US

Mansur Mohamed Surur (pictured) on Monday evening landed in South Carolina, US, marking the end of his run from the law.

The 60-year-old man was on Interpol’s blacklist over illegal animal trophies trade and heroin distribution, but a single mistake on a Kenyan flight sometime last year gave him away.

At one time upon learning that the authorities were closing in on him he left for Yemen. However, when he returned on a flight meant for Kenyan returnees, he was arrested.

During the extradition hearings, Mansur claimed innocence and when the court seemed not to buy his story, he shouted, hoping anyone would listen or even intervene.

Spirited plea

He appeared to so much want to be tried on Kenyan soil, convicted or acquitted in his motherland.

Earlier, despite a spirited plea to the Kenyan court that he should be tried at home, the magistrate’s court sealed his fate that he should fly to the US to face secret agents who had been on his trail for years.

And the US was eagerly waiting for him that its attorney immediately announced his arrival.

“US Attorney announces extradition of Kenyan national for large-scale trafficking of rhinoceros horns and 10 tonnes of elephant ivory and heroin distribution,” US Attorney’s office announced on Monday.

Mansur is the most wanted Kenyan in the US for elephant ivory and rhino horns smuggling.

Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji told the court that Mansur knew he would be facing five charges before a US court. The first charge relates to a conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking, the second one is on wildlife tracking and is similar to the third one.

The fourth is on money laundering while the fifth is on conspiracy to distribute and process controlled substance.

Haji told the court that Mansur’s suspected co-conspirator Abdul Aziz Saleh, alias Badro, had gone off the radar after learning that law enforcers were on his trail.

Badro who had been released by the JKIA court has since run away, the police are still hunting him.

“He left after his co-conspirator was arrested, presented in court and later released pending the extradition request from the US. Badro is at large from June 2019,” the DPP said.

Camera shy

Mansur may have been camera shy or he did not just want to have his photo taken. He hid his face behind an A5 envelope and when it did not work, he extended the shield using a folded white paper he pulled from the envelope. Maybe, this paper contained his side of the story that he wanted the court to hear.

Before the hearing, his lawyer, a Mr Musungu, in a chitchat with the prosecutors, said he wanted to be tried in Kenya instead.

“Wananionea, mimi sijafanya kitu (They are certainly biased, I am innocent),” said Mansur.

He is said to have escaped Kenya in 2019 through South Sudan. It is still a mystery how he beat the system, but the prosecution said he escaped to Yemen through South Sudan.

On July 28, 2019, some days before Interpol raised a red alert on him, Mansur took to the northwest of Kenya, knowing that if he set foot in South Sudan’s soil, neither Kenya nor US would pursue him.

Three days later, he shuttled to Sudan, then to Yemen. He had found a safe haven in Yemen, which has no extradition treaty with Kenya and the US.

In the US, Mansur is said to have been running a wildlife trophies smuggling syndicate involving Badro, Moazu Kromah, a Liberian, Amara Cherif and Abdi Hussein Ahmed. They are accused of poaching approximately 35 rhinos and more than 100 elephants for over a decade.