Anti-narcotic officers attached the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are holding a traveller after he was found with 3.05 kilograms of white powdery substance suspected to be heroin.
The police said the traveller, whose nationality is yet to be revealed, was heading to Italy at the time of the arrest.
“Mr Ordijhe Mike who was to travel to Italy was found concealing the substance in his suitcase. The suspect is in lawful custody as further analysis of the substance is ongoing,” the DCI said in a tweet.
The incident comes barely a day after Deputy Director Anti-Narcotics Unit Janet Shako revealed that drug traffickers had invented new routes and lucrative market in the northern parts of Kenya. She said the region is a target of bhang being trafficked from Shashamane in Ethiopia.
“The Isiolo-Moyale route has become a major transportation route but our hawk-eyed agencies have put in place stringent surveillance measures,” said Shako, as she addressed the media from DCI headquarters in Nairobi.
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The anti-narcotic unit boss further linked the proliferation of drug trafficking routes in the northern Kenya frontier to the terrorism menace within Kenyan borders.
“Investigations have revealed that proceeds of the sale of such drugs have a direct link with funding of terror activities within this region,” she said.
She spoke after the police netted lorries ferrying bhang along Moyale-Isiolo Highway. While examining the vehicles, the officers discovered new methods through which crafty traffickers use to beat the system while transporting illicit drugs.
The officers and journalists watched as welders ripped through the created compartments in which the traffickers stashed the bails of bhang in the lorries. Also, the officers revealed that some traffickers use water bowsers to ferry the illegal substance in disguise that they are ferrying water.
