JKIA officials seize cocaine worth Sh1.5M

Police are looking into the origin of Sh1.5 million worth of cocaine that was confiscated at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The narcotics were in a consignment destined for Victoria, Australia, when it was seized at the weekend.

The consignment was concealed as t-shirts and picture frames when it was discovered.

Police said they found 300 grams of cocaine therein.

Anti-Narcotics Unit officials said they had been tipped off about the cargo and when they checked they found it.

The officials said they are yet to know the origin and sender but efforts to get the same were ongoing.

Police say the seizure is an indication Kenya is one of the sources of the narcotics headed for other countries.

No arrest has been made so far but officials were making efforts to trace the person or persons who intended to send the consignment.

This is despite efforts to address the menace. Whereas some of the narcotics are diluted and consumed locally some are destined for markets abroad.

Some of the drugs manage to pass through the screening areas and reach their intended destination.

Apart from these narcotics, alcohol, miraa, prescription drugs, tobacco, marijuana and inhalants are also widely consumed.

Police say traffickers now use roads as opposed to airports to carry out their business.

The most commonly trafficked narcotics from Tanzania and through Uganda include cocaine and heroin.

In 2019, the then European Union Ambassador to Kenya Simon Mordue said the Kenyan port of Mombasa accounted for 30 per cent of illegal heroin smuggled into the EU market.

Most of the heroin in the country originates from Afghanistan through the Indian Ocean while cocaine originates from South America.

Kenyan security agencies seized the second-biggest haul of cocaine weighing 100 kilograms and valued at Sh598 million in 2016 in Mombasa that was disguised as sugar.

The case was however later dismissed in court.