KRA officers arrested, mandrax seized in sting operation

Senior security and Uasin Gishu County officials display the seized consignment containing addictive drug Mandrax, at Eldoret International Airport on April 28, 2018. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Rift Valley Regional Coordinator Mongo Chimwaga said the consignment was destined for JKIA from Dubai.
  • The clearing agency is under investigation after a paper trail established that it had handled similar consignments before.
  • Uasin Gishu Deputy Governor Daniel Chemno said the county administration will not allow drug trade in the region.

Three customs officials were on Saturday arrested and illegal drugs worth Sh35 million seized after an investigation revealed a complex trafficking syndicate at Eldoret International Airport.

The Kenya Revenue Authority officials were arrested together with another from the Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board. All were stationed at the airport.

In Nairobi, a man who police said is the kingpin of the network was also arrested after raids were conducted at his office in Kasarani and at his home in Kileleshwa.

Police who conducted the raids also found a gun on him, but it was not immediately established if he was licensed to own it.

DETECTIVES
The investigation that lasted over a month also revealed that senior KRA officials were involved in the network that trafficked the highly addictive Mandrax from Dubai to Kenya but disguised it as multivitamin capsules.

The Sunday Nation also learnt the police boss at the airport was sent on compulsory leave over the matter.

The situation at the airport turned nasty as KRA officials prevented Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives from accessing their stores where the drugs were kept, and a squad of the General Service Unit officers had to be dispatched from Nairobi to help them force their way in.

From the capital, KRA senior officials had also made calls attempting to dissuade the police action, saying those involved were “interfering with their work and procedures were not being followed”.

INVESTIGATIONS
The Sunday Nation also learnt that an overhaul of KRA at the airport is imminent.

Rift Valley Regional Coordinator Mongo Chimwaga said the consignment was destined for Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) from Dubai, but was diverted to Eldoret.

“On the April 16th, a consignment was impounded here following its suspicious nature.

"We have a multiagency committee comprising about 15 government agencies who operate together during verification of any cargo coming in through the airport and on the material day this suspicious contraband was flagged,” Mr Chimwaga said.

He went on: “So the investigations are still on and what we are doing here is part of the larger investigation.

"Each of the 10 seized cartons has 16 smaller sachets inside it and each of those sachets has 50 such small packets and each packet has 10 capsules and that is the figure you have heard of 80,000 capsules.”

OPERATION
The Sunday Nation established how the syndicate operated.

The KRA officials would be tipped when the consignment arrives.

Immediately it is offloaded, they would flag it, claiming duty has not been paid and, therefore, seize it immediately and take it to their stores.

They would do so to remove it from the attention of other government agencies who are usually involved in cargo screening.

The other agencies there are Immigration, DCI, Kenya Police Service, Kenya Bureau of Standards and the National Intelligence Service.

The rogue officials would hold it in their store for some time and then release it later, after declaring the consignments and that duty had been cleared.

CORRUPT OFFICIALS
The clearing agency, too, is under investigation after a paper trail established that it had handled similar consignments before over a number of years.

Mr Chimwaga said: “We appreciate that the airport has a very effective multiagency team. But we have been informed specifically about KRA and Kebs, we would wish to put them on notice.”

He said that on April 17 samples were picked and taken to the Government Chemist for about six or seven days.

The results were released on April 26 showing the samples tested positive for Mandrax.

“We are also trying to see if there is any local distribution network for some of these drugs within this part of the region and we also want to look at what has been going on previously,” Mr Chimwaga said.

GOLD
He added that the importer who had the consignment had also been arrested in Nairobi.

He revealed that security officers were also looking at the paper work as it indicated that the consignment was supposed to land at JKIA but it got diverted from Dubai and ended up in Eldoret.

Uasin Gishu Deputy Governor Daniel Chemno said the county administration will not allow drug trade in the region.

Meanwhile, a Ugandan national was on Friday arrested while attempting to steal and then smuggle gold worth Sh100 million.

The man, identified by a police source at the JKIA as Geoffrey Musasisi, was caught trying to steal the 32kg of gold.

“We believe that he is working in cahoots with some people in customs and some local businessmen,” Mr Sam Kittony, deputy head of criminal investigations at JKIA, said.

Additional reporting by Kipchumba Some.