Police intercept bhang worth Sh2.8 million, three suspects detained

Bhang wrapped in polythene bags. The consignment was being transported to Nairobi from Moyale. The truck was interspersed in Nanyuki and three suspects arrested. [Jacinta Mutura, Standard]

Nanyuki police on Tuesday intercepted a lorry carrying 139 kilograms of bhang from Moyale in Marsabit County and arrested three suspects.

Laikipia East police boss Kizito Mutoro said the 11-tonne lorry was intercepted along Nanyuki-Nyeri highway headed to Nairobi.

Kizito said the drugs had a street value of Sh2.8 million and that the operation was coordinated by officers from the Transnational Intelligence Unit based at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters who had been trailing the lorry from Moyale.

“We were tipped off about the truck from Moyale and we found that it had a false extension behind the driver’s cabin where the drugs were put in 62 wrapped polythene papers,” said the officer.

It took the officers close to three hours as they had to use electric metal grinders to cut open the hidden extension on the lorry’s body for them to access where the drugs had been hidden.

The three who are being detained at Nanyuki Police Station will be arraigned tomorrow.

‘This is a large syndicate of drug traffickers and we will seeking for more time from the court to pursue more suspects,” he said.

 He added that investigations could go beyond the border to establish the source of drugs since reports on drug trafficking originated from Moyale, which borders Ethiopia.