Poland asks Kenya to arrest four over drugs

Detectives from Poland have asked Kenya to help them arrest four Polish drug suspects said to be hiding in the country.

The Republic of Poland wrote to the Kenya government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, seeking the arrest and subsequent deportation of the four suspects, said to be trafficking drugs through Kenya and Poland for sale in Europe.

The four — whose names and passport numbers have been supplied to Kenyan authorities and which the Daily Nation is withholding for legal reasons — have the same surname although the letter to Kenyan police does not indicate whether they are related.

The request was made after investigators at the Warsaw Criminal Investigations unit linked the four to drug trafficking. The details were furnished to the Polish government, which later wrote to Kenya.

POLITICIAN LINK

Intelligence reports from the security agencies in the European country show that though drug-related activities were not a major threat in Poland, the country was primarily used as a drug trans-shipment point for the rest of Europe.

In Poland, amphetamines, marijuana and Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) are reportedly the primary drugs of choice by users.

In Kenya, investigators have also linked the four suspects to a well-known politician, who is suspected to have arranged for their stay in one of the capital city’s exclusive suburbs. The suspects arrived in the country mid last month, according to investigators.

Protocol requires that foreign countries communicate to the security agents of another through the Foreign Affairs ministry, implying that Poland could not write to the police directly.

TRANS-SHIPMENT POINT

By Thursday evening, Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo, said he had not received any official communication from the Foreign Ministry.

Detectives from the anti-narcotics unit were, however, reported to be looking for a consignment of drugs destined for other countries and suspected to have been sneaked into Kenya.

Investigations have also been launched to establish if the four suspects were investing in Kenya using the funds from the drugs business.

A senior official at the Polish embassy in Nairobi on Thursday could neither deny nor confirm the report.

“We will give you a detailed report as soon as it is available,” she said in response to an inquiry mailed to the embassy’s official address.

HIGH-LEVEL CORRUPTION

Kenya has over the last decade been regarded as a trans-shipment point for narcotics from Asia and South America headed to Europe and the United States.

Various reports from Interpol, the United Nations and drug control authorities from Europe and the US cite high-level corruption and connivance involving politicians and security officers as providing a conducive environment for international drug traffickers.

This year alone, two ships carrying hard drugs worth billions of shillings were seized in the Indian Ocean, one in Kenyan waters. Nine foreigners of Pakistani and Iraqi origins in one of the ships are standing trial in a Mombasa court.

In the first instance, the ship carrying drugs worth more than Sh24 billion was seized by the Australian navy while the second, carrying a consignment estimated to be worth more than Sh1 billion, was intercepted by the Kenya Navy.