Police in Eldoret have smashed a syndicate involving drug peddlers and some unscrupulous business people using local wholesale and retail markets to sale drugs and illicit alcohol.
In an undercover sting operation Monday, police arrested 48 suspects including business women linked to the illicit trade at the affected markets.
Following a tip-off from informers the undercover security officers seized several kilogrammes of bhang wrapped in sacks and a consignment of illegal liquor whose street value was yet to be determined.
Uasin Gishu Police Commander, Johnston Ipara, has now asked the County Government to revoke the license of some stall owners suspected to be working in cohorts with drug lords to peddle drugs in the County.
Addressing the press today, the County Police Commander accused greedy stall owners for allowing their business premises to be used by cartels as conduits for illegal sale and transportation of drugs and illicit liquor to the youth.
Ipara warned that some of the stall owners were under police radar complaining that the rampant cases of insecurity, murder, burglary and muggings by some youth in the County was due to drug and alcohol influence.
The drug peddlers have been sneaking the consignment into the country using illegal routes along the Kenya /Uganda border under the cover of darkness, said the police boss.
Ipara called on passengers using public service vehicles to be on the lookout in the vehicles they are travelling in along Eldoret-Busia highway and report suspected cases of drugs and alcohol transportation to the police.
“Passengers using PSV’s should report any suspicious luggage in the vehicles they are travelling in because in the event the police on patrol discover narcotic and contraband alcohol in the same vehicles, they risk being viewed as part of the cartel,” warned Ipara.
He regretted that drug dealers had now devised new ways of disguising themselves as genuine traders while they engage in supplying narcotics and second-generation liquor at the Eldoret wholesale and retail markets to major markets in Nakuru, Naivasha and Nairobi.
By Kiptanui Cherono
