In July, Kenya extradited an Afghan national to the United States to face drug trafficking and firearms-related charges, following a year-long pursuit that began with a U.S. arrest warrant and led investigators to Nairobi.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The suspect had arrived in Kenya from Kabul in April 2025 and was arrested by Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives after INTERPOL circulated a Red Notice linked to the US case.

But the extradition was only the final stage of a wider investigation that had stretched across countries, involved undercover sources and relied on cooperation between law enforcement agencies.

U.S. investigators had been building a case around an alleged international drug network, using people posing as legitimate buyers to establish contact with suspected traffickers.

📌 What You Need to Know

In one operation, a supposed buyer met an alleged associate of the suspect in Johannesburg in December 2024 to receive a 2kg sample of methamphetamine.

The buyer was secretly working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), allowing American investigators to gather evidence from the alleged transaction without immediately revealing their identities, according to an analysis by Daily Maverick .

The operation eventually connected the investigation to Kenya, where the suspect was arrested at a Nairobi hotel after the U.S. sought his surrender to face charges.

Kenyan authorities then took over the legal process, with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) filing extradition proceedings before the courts.

The case followed a similar operation in which U.S. investigators used undercover DEA informants to penetrate an international drug network operating through Kenya.

In that investigation, suspected traffickers allegedly negotiated with undercover agents posing as members of a South American drug trafficking organisation seeking heroin and methamphetamine.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke