29 July 2019: Sub-Saharan Analysis

"Their operations were well protected for close to one and a half decade by pocketing  law enforcement, and government officials."

#Assessment

Organized crime is organically developed, vacuum is quickly filled up through a bottom -up formation.

In this Criminal achitecture, the syndicate landscapes develops organically by the composition of available criminal elements, beginning with the primitive elements ( junior operaters/middle level managers).

Akasha pipelines have new owners, through crime scattering and crime convergence i.e tax evasion, counterfeit trade and related crimes - spreading out of Nairobi ICD and Mombasa port.

The 'elements' operates in a tight knite, recruiting and sourcing agents ethnically, to maintain loyalty.

Smuggling operations are protected through a web of economic and political interests, pocketing of law enforcement, government, port officials  is target specific.

What has changed, is the profile of pipelines owners, a case in point are the Activities observed at the Kisumu port, and other related piers.

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2019-07-29-how-akashas-took-control-of-the-sub-saharan-drug-market/

Criminals are brazenly facilited, with rogue officials designing  loopholes, and direct participation in Illicit trade. Port officials have replaced the fallen kingpins with a crime achitecture that will be difficult to identify, and disrupt, effectively aiding crime is policy..

This smuggling pipeline will remain in place for the foreceable future, it is lucrative and low risk .

For instance, We know that Akasha's were placed under US jurisdiction in 2017.

Prior to their extradition, Akasha's had steadily stabilised Illicit business and controlled the Kenyan Illicit market, and related pipelines.

The lake corridor is not one focused upon, but it is a critical pipeline for heroin trafficking.

We also know now that the Akasha brothers were on the process of spreading their tentacles to Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Burundi, by financing their like minded parties, we know security people in Uganda in cahoots with Government accomplices have been utilizing the lake to distribute contraband'.

Because little is known of the lake corridor, the region has developed into a reliable lucrative entry point.

We also know that the entry point 'structures' have never been disrupted

Matter of fact as at 1st August, 2017,  Kenya Ports Authority (KPA)  took Control of Kisumu port and Lake Victoria piers, with rogue port officials exploiting the inherited Kenya Railways platform, modifying it's 'structural ambiguity', resulting in crime convergence between Mombasa, Nairobi and the Kisumu outerports.

 The new pipeline owners brought in a complex network that is much more nuance,  than the network Akasha's operated.