Detectives at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport have arrested a Kenyan woman and seized 57 pellets of cocaine stuffed in her undergarments.
Anti-Narcotics Unit police intercepted the 32-year-old woman, Apoko Damaris Adhiambo, who was heading to Madagascar, on Tuesday night.
“In the 10.30 pm interception, Apoko Damaris Adhiambo, 32 was flagged down at terminal A1’s central screening area, as she checked in to board Kenya Airways KQ 256 flight to Antananarivo, Madagascar,” the DCI reported yesterday.
It added; “A body scanner at the checkpoint revealed suspicious items concealed around her privates, triggering a quick search that saw 600g of the highly addictive gak discovered. A spot test conducted on the discovery was positive for the coca product.”
After a brief interrogation by female anti-narcotics officers, Apoko disclosed that she had been recruited by a Ugandan national identified as Harriet Asaba, who lived in the Kenyan Capital Nairobi.
Using forensic technologies, detectives traced Asaba to Accra Road in Nairobi CBD and arrested her.
Three more suspects, namely Nangonzi Shirah (a Ugandan national), Esther Wanjiru, 24, and Sophia Kathambi, also aged 24, were also apprehended at a beauty shop in Nairobi.
“In the painstaking pursuit to break the entire syndicate, the second suspect led officers to Free Area Hotel building and into the VIP Beauty Shop, where a meticulous search was conducted and another 33 pellets of crack found. Therein, three more suspects were also rounded up,” said the DCI.
A presumptive test on the second recovery also yielded a positive result for cocaine, with an approximate weight of 396 grams.
The DCI stated: “Whereas prosecution processes have been instigated on the arrested suspects, further investigations are ongoing jointly with the InterPol team to track down the recipients of the drugs at Antananarivo.”