Police arrest suspects, recover suspected narcotics

Police display suspected narcotics seized during multi-county crackdowns, with several suspects arrested and awaiting arraignment. [File Standard]

Police in Kiambu County have arrested a man and recovered suspected narcotics in the Mutarakwa area on the Mai Mahiu–Nairobi Highway.

Detectives from the Anti-Narcotics Unit and Transnational Organised Crime Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), acting on intelligence, intercepted a Toyota Crown driven by a man identified as Brian Thomas Washika.

The suspect initially fled when stopped, prompting police to fire warning shots, but he was later arrested.

A search of the vehicle uncovered six sacks containing multiple bales, three wrapped in yellow cellophane, a multi-coloured shopping bag, and a khaki package, all suspected to contain narcotics. A phone was also recovered.

The suspect was held at Mutarakwa Police Post before being transferred to Muthaiga Police Station.

“The recovered exhibits and the motor vehicle were brought to DCI Headquarters for safe custody, forensic analysis, and further processing,” said DCI.

Elsewhere, police in Tana River County, working with National Police Reservists, conducted a crackdown in the Mushroom area of Laza town, seizing 34 rolls of a substance suspected to be bhang and arresting two suspects, Ali Kasena and Stephen Kiponda, pending arraignment on trafficking charges.

In Murang’a County, officers in Kangari arrested James Ngugi Mbuthia for trafficking bhang.

Authorities seized at least 150 rolls of suspected bhang and 75 kilograms of bhang brooms concealed in two white sacks.

In Kiambu, a separate operation in Ruaka led to the arrest of Samuel Kimani Nyakeru, who was found with 1,140 rolls of suspected bhang. He is in police custody pending arraignment at the Kiambu Law Court, while the recovered narcotics have been secured as exhibits.