Nanyuki Police on Monday intercepted a lorry ferrying 139 kilos of bhang estimated to have a street value of Sh. 2.8 million and arrested three suspects.
The Laikipia East Sub County Police Commander (SCPC), Kizito Mutoro said that his officers intercepted the 11 ton lorry along the Nanyuki-Nyeri Highway after a tip-off that it was transporting the drug from Moyale in Marsabit County to Nairobi.
“Upon inspection of the lorry the officers discovered it had a false extension on the truck’s body behind the driver’s cabin and upon checking they discovered the bhang in 62 well-wrapped packages in polythene papers,” Mutoro said, adding the three suspects are now being detained at Nanyuki police station.
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.
Mutoro added that the operation was coordinated by officers from Transnational Intelligence Unit based at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters who had been trailing the lorry from Moyale.
The SCPC said the three suspects were expected to be arraigned in court on Tuesday where investigators will plead for more time to detain them as they investigate the matter and pursue other suspects.
“This is a large syndicate of drug traffickers and that’s why we shall seek for more time from the court in order to get sufficient time to nail more suspects,” Mutoro said.
He further said that detectives would seek to establish if the drugs were from a neighbouring country since the haul emanated from Moyale which is a border town to Ethiopia.
By Martin Munyi
