EXCLUSIVE The truth about Hannah Kobayashi's 'disappearance' finally revealed... by FAKE husband who helped her plot the whole thing
The fake husband of the Hawaii woman who triggered a nationwide manhunt after she went missing late last year has finally broken his silence for the first time since she was found safe and their sham marriage was exposed.
Argentinian national Alan Cacace secretly married Hannah Kobayashi, 31, in Maui, in a $15,000 deal meant to secure him a US green card, weeks before she mysteriously disappeared last November.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
How a polo-loving businessman was a secret global drug lord
On the surface, Muhammed Asif Hafeez was an upstanding individual.A global businessman and ambassador of a prestigious London polo club, he rubbed shoulders with the British elite, including members of the Royal also regularly passed on detailed information to the authorities in the UK and Middle East that, in some cases, led to the interception of huge shipments of drugs. He was motivated, he said, simply by what he saw as his "moral obligation to curb and highlight criminal activities".At least, that is what he would have had people reality, Hafeez was himself what US officials described as "one of the world's most prolific drug traffickers".From his residence in the UK, he was the puppet-master of a vast drugs empire, supplying many tonnes of heroin, methamphetamine and hashish from bases in Pakistan and India that were distributed across the world. The gangs he informed on were his rivals - and his motivation was to rid the market of his status in the underworld earned him the moniker "the Sultan".But this criminal power and prestige would not last forever. 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. On Friday, he was sentenced to 16 years in a New York prison for conspiring to import drugs - including enough heroin for "millions of doses" - into the US. Having been in custody since 2017, Hafeez's sentence will end in BBC has closely followed Hafeez's case. We have pieced together information from court documents, corporate listings and interviews with people who knew wanted to find out how he managed to stay under the radar for so long - and how he eventually got caught. Hafeez was born in September 1958 to a middle-class family in Lahore, Pakistan. One of six children, his upbringing was comfortable. People in Lahore who knew the family told the BBC that his father had owned a factory near the city. Hafeez also later told a US court that he had trained as a commercial the early 1990s to about the mid-2010s, he ran an outwardly legitimate umbrella company called Sarwani International Corporation, with subsidiary businesses in Pakistan, the UAE and the to its website - which has since been shut down - it sold technical equipment to militaries, governments and police forces throughout the world, including equipment for drug the other businesses under the Sarwani umbrella were a textiles company registered in various countries, an Italian restaurant in Lahore that was a franchise of a well-known Knightsbridge brand, and a company named Tipmoor, based near Windsor to the west of London, which specialised in "polo and equestrian services".These businesses not only afforded him a luxury lifestyle, but secured him access to the UK's most exclusive circles. He was listed as an international ambassador for the prestigious Ham Polo Club for at least three years, from 2009 to 2011. He and his wife Shahina were also photographed chatting to Prince William, and embracing Prince Harry, at the club in Polo Club told the BBC that Hafeez had never been a member of the club, that the club no longer has "ambassadors", and that the current board "has no ties to him". It added that the event at which Hafeez and his wife were photographed meeting the princes "was run by a third party".Sarwani's different global arms were dissolved at various stages in the 2010s, according to their listings on Companies House and equivalent global registries. 'Something fishy going on' A former Sarwani employee based in the UAE told the BBC he suspected there had been "something fishy going on" when he worked for the business, because even big projects were "only paid for in cash". The employee - who has asked not to be identified, for fear of reprisals - said he eventually left the business because he felt uncomfortable with this."There were no [bank] transactions, no records, no existence," he told the would also periodically write letters to the authorities in the UAE and UK informing on rival cartels, under the guise of being a concerned member of the public. The BBC has seen these, as well as letters he received in response from the British Embassy in Dubai and the UK Home Office, thanking him and expressing their appreciation for him getting in Home Office told the BBC it does not comment on individual Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Government of Dubai were contacted by the BBC for comment but did not respond. Members of Hafeez's family shared these letters with the BBC in 2018, while he was embroiled in a lengthy legal fight against extradition to the US. They also submitted them to courts in the UK and, later, to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), as evidence that he had been an informant and needed protection. All the courts disagreed and ruled that this was a ploy by Hafeez to rid the market of the ECHR said, 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". While Hafeez was writing these letters, a meeting took place in 2014 that - despite him not being there - would lead to his of Hafeez's close associates met a potential buyer from Colombia in a flat in Mombasa, Kenya. They burned a small amount of heroin in order to demonstrate how pure it was, and said they could supply him with any quantity of "100%... white crystal".The supplier of this high-quality heroin, they had told the buyer, was a man from Pakistan known as "the Sultan" - that is, they would soon learn was that the "buyer" from Colombia was actually working undercover for the US's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The entire meeting was part of an elaborate sting operation, and had been covertly filmed - footage that has been obtained by the BBC. US court documents reveal the deal was co-ordinated by Baktash and Ibrahim Akasha, two brothers who led a violent cartel in Kenya. Their father was himself a feared kingpin who had been killed in Amsterdam's Red Light District in deal also involved Vijaygiri "Vicky" Goswami, an Indian national who managed the Akashas' October 2014, with the Akashas, Goswami and Hafeez still unaware of who the buyers really were, 99kg of heroin and 2kg of crystal meth were delivered to the fake Colombian traffickers. The Akashas promised to provide hundreds of kilograms more of each drug.A month later, the Akasha brothers and Goswami were arrested in Mombasa. They were released on bail shortly afterwards, and spent over two years fighting extradition to the the background, American law enforcers were working with counterparts in the UK to piece together their case against Hafeez, partly using evidence gathered from devices they had seized when they arrested Goswami and the Akasha brothers. On those, they had found multiple references to Hafeez as a major supplier, and were able to find enough evidence to identify him as "the Sultan".Facing charges in the US didn't stop one of the men, Goswami, from continuing his illegal enterprise. In 2015, while on bail in Kenya, he hatched a plan with Hafeez to transport several tonnes of a drug called ephedrine from a chemical factory in Solapur, India, to a powerful medication that is legal in limited quantities, is used to make methamphetamine. The two men - Goswami and Hafeez - planned to set up a meth factory in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, US court documents show. But their scheme was abandoned in 2016, when police raided the Solapur plant and seized 18 tonnes of Akasha brothers and Goswami finally boarded a flight to the US to face trial in January 2017. Hafeez was arrested eight months later in London, at his flat in the affluent St John's Wood neighbourhood. He was detained at high security Belmarsh Prison in south-east London, and it was from there that he spent six years fighting extradition to the US.A big development happened in 2019 in the US. Goswami pleaded guilty, and told a New York court he had agreed to co-operate with prosecutors. The Akasha brothers also pleaded Akasha was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His brother Ibrahim was sentenced to 23 who is yet to be sentenced, would have testified against Hafeez in the US had the case gone to Belmarsh, Hafeez was running out of tried to stop extradition to the US - but failed to convince magistrates, the High Court in London and the ECHR that he had, in fact, been an informant to the authorities who was "at risk of ill-treatment from his fellow prisoners" as a result. He also claimed the conditions in a US prison would be "inhuman and degrading" for him because of his health conditions, including type 2 diabetes and lost all of these arguments at every stage and was extradited in May case did not go to trial. In November last year, Hafeez pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to manufacture and distribute heroin, methamphetamine and hashish and to import them into the US. Pre-sentencing, prosecutors described the "extremely fortunate circumstances" of Hafeez's life, which "throw into harsh relief his decision to scheme... and to profit from the distribution of dangerous substances that destroy lives and whole communities"."Unlike many traffickers whose drug activities are borne, at least in part, from desperation, poverty, and a lack of educational opportunities," they said, "the defendant has lived a life replete with privilege and choice."
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Deported notorious migrant dubbed 'Maryland man' is on his way BACK to America from El Salvador prison
A migrant man who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador has returned to the US. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was brought back to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants around the US. The Trump administration initially accepted it had made a mistake in deporting Abrego Garcia, a father-of-three who arrived in the US illegally more than a decade ago. On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Abrego Garcia had landed 'to face justice' over allegations of people smuggling and conspiracy to commit smuggling. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also championed his return, saying it proved the 'unhinged Democrat Party' was wrong about Abrego Garcia, who liberals had dubbed a ' Maryland father-of-three'. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador after being accused of being an MS-13 gang member. The deportation went ahead despite a court order forbidding his return which claimed he was at risk of persecution by the gang. Prior to this he had several brushes with the law in the US over the years, although none resulted in arrest or conviction. After initially ignoring a court order to facilitate his repatriation to the US, Bondi announced that Abrego Garcia has been hauled back to America to face charges stemming from one of these encounters. . @AGPamBondi announces Kilmar Abrego Garcia "has landed in the United States to face justice" on charges of alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. "Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador." — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 6, 2025 A federal grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia over claims he participated in a years- long operation trafficking people through the Texas border. Sources told ABC News that amongst those allegedly transported were members of the infamous Salvadoran gang MS-13. The conspiracy is said to have spanned nearly ten years and involved the transportation of thousands of migrants from Mexico and Central America. He is expected to be prosecuted and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country at the conclusion of the case, officials said. The investigation into the charges started after federal authorities started probing a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, source said. He was stopped with eight people in his car and told officers he was driving them from Texas to Maryland for a construction job. The exchange led the officer to, 'suspect this was a human trafficking incident', according to a report produced at the time. But Abrego Garcia was let go with out any arrest or charge, despite having an expired license, per the document. Abrego Garcia was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison after the administration claimed he was a member of MS-13. Something he and his family have denied. President Donald Trump had repeatedly maintained in an interview with ABC's Terry Moran that Abrego Garcia has M-S-1-3 tattooed on his hand. Trump had posted multiple times showing knuckle tattoos, but Moran told him the actual M-S-1-3 letters and numbers had simply been photoshopped onto the image above Abrego Garcia's actual tattoos as a code to decipher them. His deportation saga began when he was pulled over by immigration officers on March 12 and was told his immigration status had changed. Within days he was on a plane to El Salvador and his family recognized him in CECOT from media images which showed off distinctive tattoos on his arm. Abrego Garcia was granted 'withholding of removal' status in 2019 after a judge determined his claims that he would be persecuted if he returned to El Salvador were legitimate. President Trump had said that he could retrieve Abrego Garcia with one phone call to El Salvador's president, but refused to do it. Abrego Garcia´s American wife sued over his deportation, and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered his return on April 4. The Supreme Court ruled on April 10 that the administration must work to bring him back. Late last month the administration asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit, arguing the court lacked jurisdiction because he was no longer in the US. Attorneys for the administration have also argued that information about returning Abrego Garcia is protected under state secrets privilege. U.S. attorneys said releasing such details in open court - or even to the judge in private - would jeopardize national security by revealing sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Many filings in the case have been sealed. The case has raised questions about whether due process was followed and highlighted the extent to which the White House is trying to exert control over the courts to bolster its immigration policy. US Senator Chris Van Hollen, who represents Maryland, had traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia. In a statement on Friday, he said: 'For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. 'Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process afforded to everyone in the United States. 'As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it's about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all. 'The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.' In a statement about his return, Abrego Garcia's attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said: 'From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. 'Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man's life. We're not just fighting for Kilmar - we're fighting to ensure due process rights are protected for everyone. 'Because tomorrow, this could be any one of us -- if we let power go unchecked, if we ignore our Constitution.' Abrego Garcia's wife has stood by him throughout the saga, despite previously filing a report of domestic abuse against her husband. The Salvadoran was never charged over the report which was later retracted.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
How stunned Joe Rogan reacted to Trump and Musk war in real time during Kash Patel interview
It was supposed to be just another no-holds-barred conversation on The Joe Rogan Experience, but what unfolded in real time stunned even Joe Rogan himself. Midway through the recording of Rogan's high-profile interview with FBI Director Kash Patel on Thursday afternoon, chaos was erupting on social media. Donald Trump and Elon Musk, once the closest of political allies and collaborators, were detonating their relationship in a flurry of public insults, threats, and finally, an explosive accusation that would leave political world gasping. 'Jesus Christ,' Rogan muttered, his eyes widening as he read aloud Musk's now-infamous post: 'Time to drop the really big bomb. Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That's the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' The podcast had already been knee-deep in a discussion of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein 's shadowy network, when Rogan's producer put up Musk's incendiary post on the screen. It was an accusation aimed squarely at Trump, dragging him into the murky world of Epstein's infamous island and the so-called 'Epstein files' - flight logs and documents long rumored to implicate the powerful and well-connected. 'I'm not participating in any of that conversation between Elon and Trump,' Patel said immediately, distancing himself from the explosive spat. But Rogan couldn't look away. 'Someone should take his phone away,' Rogan muttered, incredulous. 'Jesus Christ that's a crazy thing to say. How does he know? Does he have access to the Epstein files?' Patel remained calm but firmly replied: 'I don't know how he would. But I'm staying out of it. That's way outside my lane.' Still in disbelief Rogan added: 'What the f*** are they doing?' The Musk-Trump row had been simmering for days, but few expected it to erupt so spectacularly. 'I understand he owns Twitter, but I think it's bad for your mental health,' Rogan said moments later. 'Posting all day and arguing with people all day - that can't be good for you.' 'I know my lane and that ain't it,' Patel said again, staying as far from the blast zone as possible. Hours earlier, at a White House meeting, Trump had lashed out at Musk's blistering critique of his prized 'Big Beautiful Bill,' calling the Tesla founder 'very disappointing.' From there, the tit-for-tat escalated with breathtaking speed. Musk upped the ante by threatening to back a third-party challenger, a nightmare scenario for Republican strategists. Trump, never one to back down, retaliated by publicly musing about cancelling Musk's multi-billion-dollar government contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. By Friday, as word of the Musk-Trump implosion spread, Washington seemed to be in full crisis mode. Senior Republicans scrambled to contain the damage, fearful that the spectacle could derail crucial legislation, including Trump's controversial tax and border spending bill, which Musk had labeled an 'abomination.' 'I hope it doesn't distract us from getting the job done,' Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Washington) told reporters nervously. Others practically begged for a reconciliation. 'When the two of them are working together, we get a lot more done,' Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Fox News. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted a photo collage of Trump and Musk, pleading: 'Who else really wants @elonmusk and @realDonaldTrump to reconcile?' But Trump, in true Trump fashion, showed no interest in extending an olive branch. 'You mean the man who has lost his mind?' he scoffed when asked about Musk during a phone interview with ABC News. 'I'm not particularly interested in talking to him.' Later, aboard Air Force One en route to his Bedminster golf club, Trump struck a more detached tone. 'Honestly, I've been so busy working on China, Russia, Iran... I'm not thinking about Elon Musk. I just wish him well,' he told reporters, even as aides privately fumed that Musk's accusations could inflict serious damage. Still, the president couldn't resist one last jab: 'He's lost it.' The political earthquake was soon matched by a financial one. Tesla's stock plummeted more than 14% on Thursday amid the very public feud, wiping out nearly $100 billion in market value before recovering slightly by Friday. At the White House, aides whispered that Trump was considering getting rid of the bright red Tesla Model S he famously purchased earlier this year, a symbol of the bromance that once was. Musk is seen jumping on stage as he joined Donald Trump during a campaign rally last October 'He's thinking about it, yes,' a senior White House official confirmed. Meanwhile, Musk remained unusually quiet on Friday, steering clear of his usual rapid-fire posting on X, the platform he owns and has aggressively reshaped. For Trump, Musk's financial and political support had been crucial. The billionaire donated nearly $300 million to Trump's 2024 campaign. But Musk, too, has much to lose.
