Prince Buruji Kashamu, believed to be the leader of the trafficking ring featured in Orange Is the New Black, has been wanted in the United States for 17 years.
by Yinka Adegoke
Prince Buruji Kashamu, a wealthy Nigerian businessman with a checkered past, has surprised many in the southwestern Ogun State by winning a senate seat for president Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The PDP lost most of the seats it contested in this weekend’s elections.
But that isn’t the most remarkable thing about Kashamu.
For 17 years he has been wanted in the United States for allegedly acting as the kingpin of a drug smuggling and money laundering ring. It was the same operation that landed American author Piper Kerman in jail for a year and inspired her memoir Orange Is The New Black. Kashamu strenuously denies the charges and claims it’s a case of mistaken identity; he says the U.S. really wants his late brother.
