Nigerian arrested at Nairobi airport, emits 83 pellets of cocaine valued at more than Sh5 million

A Nigerian national was arrested while carrying cocaine valued at more than Sh5 million.

Police say he had arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Lagos, Nigeria when he was stopped.

Airport CID boss Joseph Ngisa said the suspect had inserted the pellets in his anal system.

“He was put under observation and he has so far emitted 83 pellets of white powder that has been tested and found to be cocaine,” said Ngisa.

The arrest is the latest in a series of others that have happened in the past days. Most traffickers arrested at JKIA are usually on transit.

But the one arrested on Saturday was coming to Nairobi indicating the market is here. He was under interrogation to say where he was to deliver the drugs but he has been uncooperative, officials said.

Police say he is expected in court to face charges of trafficking narcotics.

Anti-narcotics police officers say most of the drugs being consumed in Nairobi originate from Tanzania through the Namanga border.

The traffickers had also been avoiding airports for roads, which are poorly manned, to traffic the drugs.

Most of the narcotics that are seized are cocaine and heroin.

Statistics show police at the airports seized drugs valued more than Sh50 million last year alone. Most of those arrested were passengers who were on transit.

Police say they have enhanced surveillance measures to tame such practices especially at the airports.

More than a dozen Nigerians are in Kenyan jails serving various sentences over drug trafficking issues.

Kenya deported more than 100 drug barons in 2013 in a campaign that was aimed at getting rid of narcotic trafficking and consumption.

Most of the foreigners who were deported had come to the country posing as businessmen and had been here for up to 20 years.