With suspected Mombasa druglord Ali Punjani's expected comeback in the country next Monday, emerging details have shown that he could be a well-connected man.
This follows revelations that he has been working with among others, a Principal Secretary, a Member of Parliament and a Kenyan diplomat and other top state officials.
At the same time, the alleged drug baron who could be arrested on arrival has been in close contact with the group in line with his attempts to evade prosecution.
For instance, in January 2017, he held a secret meeting with the MP and the envoy in Mombasa. The PS would later try to broker a truce between him and the Akasha brothers.
This was at a time when the two sides could not see face to face.
Baktash has since been jailed for 25 years in the United States after pleading guilty to drug dealing charges, with Ibrahim also set to be sentenced in November.
In another incident, reports the Standard, Punjani allegedly bribed a top state official with millions of shillings to evade prosecution, but his lawyer insists that he is innocent.
"My client will most likely come back to Kenya on August 26 from India because there is nothing which stops him from coming as he has not done anything wrong. It is a fact that nothing was found in his house in spite of the police searching the house without a search warrant which took more than 24 hours,” Jeff Asige, the lawyer, said on Sunday.
Mombasa County Commander Johnson Ipara, on the other hand, accused him of misleading the public, adding that the accused will be interrogated upon landing from India.
Punjani has been undergoing heart condition treatment in India.