British drug lord with links to India allowed to appeal against extradition

nLONDON: A British Pakistani accused in a global narcotics smuggling case was on Friday allowed to appeal against his extradition to the United States to face charges of importing heroine.

Muhammad Asif Hafeez, 61, had allegedly sourced ephedrine from India and is said to have links with the Indian film industry. Hafeez was arrested in 2017 by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in an operation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

After the Westminster Magistrates Court cleared his extradition, Hafeez appealed in the high court against the home secretary’s subsequent decision to extradite him to the US.

While HC rejected various grounds to block his extradition, it said if extradited, Hafeez would face life imprisonment without parole, which would potentially violate his human rights. According to court documents, the DEA between 2014 and 2017 conducted an investigation into proposed import of drugs into the US.

During probe, it was revealed that Hafeez had aided the heroin import along with an Indian national. The US government’s case is that Hafeez was planning to set up a methamphetamine manufacturing unit in Mozambique, for which ephedrine was sourced from India. “In 2016 authorities in India seized a very large quantity of ephedrine from a factory in Solapur in India. This is said to have been intended for use in the factory in Mozambique,” the judgment noted.