Combating ivory and narcotics trafficking through Mombasa Port

A section of the container terminal at the Mombasa Port. [File, Standard] 

In the last seven years, Kenyan and global security agencies have recorded significant victories in the war against narcotics, elephant ivory, and rhino horns through Kenya’s manned and unmanned ports.

For instance, the jailing of Kenyan Mansur Mohamed Surur, Liberian Moazu Kromah, and Guinean Amara Cherif by the Southern District of New York is hailed in maritime security as a big win in the war.

Surur was arrested in Kenya in 2020, Kromah in Uganda in 2019, and Cherif in Senegal in 2019 before they were extradited to the US to face the charges.

Their arrest also lifted the veil on Mombasa Port’s links to a web of transnational criminal enterprise after three suspects facing drug and wildlife trophy trafficking charges in Mombasa were linked to them.

In Mombasa, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) told the court that Abdulrahman Mahmoud Sheikh Alias Said Juma and his sons, Sheikh Mohamud Abdulrahman and Mahmoud Abdulrahman Sheikh, were part of this web.

Linking the father and his sons to Surur, Kromah, and Cherif, the DPP said the trafficker’s intricate web of criminal operations cut across Africa, Asia, and the US.

In the US, Kromar aka Ayoba aka youba aka Kampala man, a Liberian national, organised the shipping of 511 pieces of ivory through Mombasa Port inside a container of tea to Thailand.

Kromar was also linked by the DPP to the Sheikhs and other Kenyans, the ‘Jefwa brothers’’, linked to the bill of lading relating to the said container No FCIU5235796 seized in Thailand with pieces of ivory.

The bill of lading was used to ship out tea leaves through the port of Mombasa, according to the records in the Mombasa Court.  The Sheikhs are battling charges of ivory trafficking in a Mombasa Court.

They were charged alongside Lucy Muthoni, Musa Lithare, Samuel Mundia, Salim Mohammed, Abbas Rashid, and Kenneth Njuguna with trafficking 511 pieces of ivory to Laos, and Thailand.

They have denied the charges that they were behind the said tusks estimated to be worth Sh576 million on June 23, 2015. The case has been postponed several times because the pieces of evidence are in Thailand. 

Meanwhile, the Jefwa brothers - Nicholas Mweri Jefwa and Samuel Bakari Jefwa - are wanted to face charges of jointly dealing in ivory and wildlife trophies between Kenya to Thailand without a permit.

The brothers, who hail from Ganze, a remote village in Kilifi County, are believed to be the masterminds behind the trafficking of the ivory seized in Thailand.

The ivory cargo disguised as tea left Mombasa port on April 21, 2015, sailing to Thailand instead of Laos as indicated. Other reports indicate that the Jefwas joined the international criminal web in 2014.

However, they suddenly vanished from the face of the earth amid reports they had slipped out of Kenya; they have been on the run since.

The last time police had a clue of their movements, according to police sources, was in the early weeks of the probe in 2015 when their cellphones were traced to Malaba on Kenya’s border with Uganda.

Some reports say the fugitives could be hiding in South Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other accounts claim they are in Senegal - but some say the fugitives could be hiding in plain sight in Kenya.

In an interview with The Standard, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) managing director William Ruto admitted that wildlife and drug trafficking was an international crisis that threatened security and other global human ways of life.

He said the fight against wildlife and drug trafficking is among the key functions of port management in collaboration with security agents in Kenya and internationally.

“Law enforcement agencies such as customs, wildlife, and forest work closely with KPA security to ensure they fight against this illicit trafficking.  We want to ensure Mombasa port does not become the exit point of the two illicit items,” said Ruto.

With the support of international security organisations such as the International Police (Interpol), Ruto said Kenya has registered success in stopping the illicit trade through Mombasa Port.

“We have had several cases in which Interpol in collaboration with the local security have intercepted wildlife and drug trafficking,” said Ruto.

He said KPA has trained its security personnel on how to provide deterrents to unauthorised access to cargo that has landed at the port.

The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) has also played an important role in the detection of illicit drug and wildlife trafficking.

Ruto cited the 2013 case when a consignment of two tonnes of ivory was detected by the security agencies at the port when concealed in a sesame seeds container on transshipment to Turkey.

“The training of security personnel working at the port and installation of information technology equipment in the facility has boosted the war against the animal trophies and narcotics,” he said.

Among the areas KPA has trained its security personnel include detection if a bill of lading has been switched to conceal the origin of the container and identity of the sender.

The MD said the people behind illicit trade sometimes use two bills of lading to break the route in which the first one issued at the port of export incorrectly lists a transit port as the final destination, and the second one is produced at the transit port listing the correct final destination.

Ruto said the most common way of smuggling illicit goods to many countries is by misdeclaration of the contents of the shipment to avoid attracting attention.

Other ways of concealing the transshipment of the illicit cargo is by modifying containers to create a false back and compartment to hide the goods.

However, Ruto said this can no longer work at Mombasa port where a modern scanner has been installed.

Investigation reveals that in some circumstances some corrupt crew aboard ships collaborate with the illicit traders to help them facilitate their crime.

Others in the transportation of containers are truck drivers who are bribed by criminals to transport them.