Detectives raid Kileleshwa house in fake gold probe

Detectives load black boxes found in a Kileleshwa house in Nairobi onto a lorry on May 13, 2019. PHOTO | COLLINS OMULO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The raid, which was led by a team of senior detectives from the DCI headquarters, saw 15 people arrested.

  • The officers said they would take the samples to the Ministry of Mining for testing.   

  • The officers carried away large black boxes said to contain the fake gold.

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Monday raided a house in Kileleshwa suspected to have fake gold bars.

The Nation saw three gold bars at the scene but could not independently verify the authenticity.

The officers carried away large black boxes said to contain the fake gold.

Eight cars including a Subaru, Mercedes Benz and a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado among others, which were parked near the house located in Kaputei Gardens, were towed to Kilimani Police Station.

The raid, which was led by a team of senior detectives from the DCI headquarters and Kilimani Divisional Criminal Investigation Officer (DCIO) Fatuma Hadi, saw 15 people arrested. The suspects included three women and 12 men.

50 BOXES

The detectives carried away over 50 large boxes stuffed with fake gold. Also confiscated were mallets, grey metal boxes, computers and bags of cement.  

“We arrived at the scene some minutes past 9am and arrested the suspects. Some of the people were hiding in the ceiling,” said one of the detectives.  

He said that the raid was part of a wider operation that DCI has been carrying out.

“They (suspects) used the cement in the packaging process. The cement is first put on the floor of the box then followed by the mallets and then the fake gold in the last compartment. The mallets and the cement give it the weight to avoid suspicion,” he said.

BIOMETRIC LOCKS

The property manager, only identified as a Mr Oduol Ondieki, declined to reveal the identity of the tenant of the lush home which has many rooms fitted with biometric locks.

The officers said they would take the samples to the Ministry of Mining for testing. 

The large black boxes had Global Freight Limited/Simiuong NBO/LAOS marks on them. The suspects will be arraigned in court on Tuesday.