Spies and SA's narco secrets — behind the US sentencing of global drug trafficker ‘Sultan' Muhammad Asif Hafeez
South Africa's narcotrafficking arena, part of global organised crime, is saturated with suspicions linked to spies, double agents and politics.
A sprawling case that touches on some of these elements involves Muhammad Asif Hafeez, also known as 'the big boss' and 'Sultan', from Pakistan.
He once claimed to be a US government informant.
In November last year the US Justice Department issued a statement announcing that Hafeez, 'one of the world's most prolific drug traffickers', pleaded guilty to narco conspiracy charges there.
It also said Hafeez had been dominant 'in a sophisticated international drug trafficking network'.
That drug network extended all the way to South Africa.
And among those involved in it were individuals who have, or are suspected to have, operated in different countries' government circles.
Daily Maverick previously referenced a 2019 Vrye Weekblad report that said Mandrax trafficker Vicky Goswami of India, in sealed grand jury testimony in the US, alleged that members of the Gupta family were involved in money laundering on behalf of Hafeez.
A Gupta lawyer on a previous occasion previously failed to respond to Daily Maverick questions about this.
And a lawyer for Hafeez had said his client denied knowing the Guptas.
Now, it was reported that earlier this month, on 6 June 2025, that Hafeez had been sentenced in the US to an effective 16 years in jail on the charges he previously pleaded guilty to.
Hafeez and heroin
The BBC summed up the case: 'After a complex joint operation between the British and American authorities, Hafeez, 66, was extradited from the UK in 2023. He pleaded guilty last November.
'He was (recently) sentenced to 16 years in a New York prison for conspiring to import drugs — including enough heroin for 'millions of doses' — into the US.'
Unlike previously when the US government issued press releases when accused individuals in the broader case linked to Hafeez were arrested, pleaded or were sentenced, this did not happen with the handing down of his jail term.
Daily Maverick unsuccessfully tried to get direct confirmation and details on Hafeez's sentencing, which has since been reported on internationally, from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
A search on the US government's inmate locator platform did not show anyone detained there under his name.
But an inmate recorded as 'Muhammad Hafiz' was jailed there and his age was recorded as 66 years — this, based on what the US previously divulged in a press statement, is roughly the same as Hafeez's age.
Daily Maverick has also established that one of his aliases listed on an indictment against him is 'Muhammad Asif Hafiz'.
This therefore suggests that Hafeez is indeed a sentenced prisoner in the US.
Akashas of Kenya
He appears to be one of the last key figures, if not the last one, in this specific US case to be sentenced.
It has yet to be seen whether the case will now quietly taper off or if information gleaned from it, which may include secrets about South Africa's drug trade, will result in further arrests and legal proceedings.
Baktash Akasha Abdalla, Ibrahim Akasha Akasha Abdalla, Gulam Hussein, Vijaygiri Anandgiri Goswami extradited to the US over drug trafficking pic.twitter.com/WnEy5n1P2d
— Hot 96 FM Kenya (@Hot_96Kenya) February 1, 2017
Hafeez was accused of conspiring, from about 2013, with others including two Kenyan brothers, Baktash Akasha Abdalla and Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, better known as the Akashas.
According to the US, Baktash allegedly headed an organised crime group known as the Akasha Organisation.
It distributed drugs in Kenya, throughout Africa and into the US.
Hafeez was accused of being a primary supplier of drugs to the Akashas.
Goswami and South Africa
This is where Goswami fits in because the Akashas and Hafeez had worked with him.
Goswami's past, with strong connections to South Africa, is detailed in this journalist's book, Clash of the Cartels: Unmasking the global drug kingpins stalking South Africa.
It details how Goswami appeared to be politically connected in this country.
A section also notes some lingering questions about him: 'Was he working with South African activists and politicians who later rose to power when the state became a democracy?
'Will he dig up and detail the dirt on old South African acquaintances? Is he actually an intelligence agent for another country, perhaps the US?'
Decades ago, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Goswami operated in Zambia — coincidentally where former president Jacob Zuma became the ANC's intelligence chief during apartheid.
In the early 1990s he based himself in South Africa.
Goswami later ended up in Dubai and in 1997 he was jailed there for dealing in Mandrax.
Goswami was released from a Dubai prison in 2012 and headed to Kenya.
The following year, according to US authorities, drug trafficking webs around Goswami expanded to include, among others, the Akasha brothers and Hafeez.
Factory raid in India
A New York US Attorney's Office press statement picks up the story — and references South Africa.
It said that 'by early 2014' the Akasha brothers 'and other members of the Akasha Organization started to work to import ton quantities of methaqualone precursor chemicals into Africa in order to fuel the illicit [Mandrax] pills' production in South Africa'.
They used the proceeds of the Mandrax dealings to import ephedrine that was 'produced illegally' at a factory in Solapur, India.
In 2016 that factory was raided, though, thwarting their plans.
The following year, 2017, the Akashas and Goswami were extradited from Kenya to the US to face criminal charges.
That year, Hafeez was provisionally arrested in the UK, where he was based at the time.
He tried to prevent his extradition from the UK to the US by turning to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Hafeez had claimed to be a US government informant.
But the court found: 'The US Government had denied that the applicant was an informant and, while he may have had contact with law enforcement agencies, the District Judge did not consider that he had done so out of a sense of moral duty.
'Rather, he was someone who had brought to the attention of the authorities the criminal conduct of others who he knew to be actual or potential rivals to his substantial criminal enterprise.'
Hafeez was extradited to the US in May 2023.
Sentencing and singing in the US
By then, Goswami had already started speaking out there, following his extradition years earlier.
While testifying in the US in 2019, he referred to the Solapur ephedrine factory that was raided in 2016.
He also talked about the assassination in South Africa in 2014 of a drug trafficker — identified in court proceedings only as Pinky, who was shot 32 times.
Goswami testified that an acquaintance was promised half a ton of abba (chemicals used to make Mandrax) in exchange for the murder to be carried out.
He also explained the reason behind Pinky's assassination: 'Because, first of all, Pinky was threatening us. Second, we wanted to have him killed so we can put an impression in (the) South African drug market (that) we are not here to play.'
Daily Maverick has previously reported that while Goswami is wanted in India over the Solapur factory raid saga, he also became a cooperating witness for the US government.
As for the Akasha brothers, both have already been sentenced.
Baktash was jailed in the US for 25 years in 2018, while Ibrahim was sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment in 2020.
With Hafeez earlier this month also being jailed, it means the US has in its custody inmates with apparent intimate knowledge of drug dealings in South Africa, an arena that has always been close to political suspicions. DM
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