Drugs
In Summary
The Citizen on Sunday has reliably leant that
Tanzanians Rumishaeli Mamkuu Shoo, 27, and his fellow countryman January
Gabriel Liundi, 30, were arrested on Thursday together with four
Kenyans, and Indians with about 50 kilograms of methamphetamine and
several sachets of ephedrine worth Sh2 billion.
Dar es Salaam. The first suspect to be
interrogated by the Tanzanian police over Sh6.8 billion narcotics seized
in South Africa in July and bailed out as investigations were going on
has been arrested in Kenya with illicit drugs.
The Citizen on Sunday has reliably leant that
Tanzanians Rumishaeli Mamkuu Shoo, 27, and his fellow countryman January
Gabriel Liundi, 30, were arrested on Thursday together with four
Kenyans, and Indians with about 50 kilograms of methamphetamine and
several sachets of ephedrine worth Sh2 billion.
According to our sources, Mr Shoo and Liundi were
tracked down and arrested in Nairobi driving a car stuffed with the raw
material for manufacturing illicit drugs. Both Kenyan and Tanzanian
police confirmed the story.
The head of the Anti-drug Unit (ADU), Assistant
Commissioner of Police Godfrey Nzowa yesterday confirmed the arrests in
Kenya. “We arrested Shoo in July. He was out on bail as we continued
investigating him,” he said. The car in which the drugs were found bore
Tanzanian plate numbers.
The Kenyans and the Indian accomplices were found at a laboratory for manufacturing drugs.
Kenya’s deputy director of Criminal
Investigations, Mr Gideon Kimilu, said the suspects had converted the
premises located at Cape Business Park off the Eastern By-pass into a
laboratory for manufacturing drugs.
They would be arraigned on Monday.
“The suspects are in custody and they shall be
presented in court after final tests are carried out at the government
chemist,” he told The Citizen on Sunday.
The laboratory was set up last month by one of the Kenyans in custody, according to police documents.
The report further says he helped the India nationals who are experts in manufacturing drugs to enter Kenya.
Two other Kenyans were described by police as “handymen”.
“The group had already manufactured samples which
had been laid out on a table to dry,” by the time police arrived, the
report also says.
Several sachets of iodine crystals, and a chemical identified as ephedrine were also confiscated.
Anti-narcotics police in Tanzania apprehended Shoo
on July 8, this year, searched his house and interrogated him one day
after two Tanzanian women singers were arrested at O. R. Tambo
International Airport carrying 180 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.
The officers seized several documents from him and
scrutinised records on his mobile phone but could not immediately link
him with the two women arrested in South Africa.
Acting on a tip-off that Mr Shoo was a suspected
drug trafficker, the officers stormed his mansion in Dar es Salaam’s
Kunduchi suburb one day after the seizure of drugs in South Africa as
they tried to establish his alleged involvement in the illicit business.
The police, however, could not establish his
direct link to the illicit business and he got a bail, pending further
investigations.
He was supposed to report at the ADU on September 15 as part of fulfilling a bail condition.
Agnes Gerald Deal, 25, also known as Masogange,
and Melisa Edward, 24, who were caught in South Africa with 180
kilograms of methamphetamine are said to have refused to cooperate with
the police to name the man behind the haul.
Police in Kenya say the suspects held in the
country are believed to be part of a syndicate involved in manufacturing
drugs in Kenya and trafficking them to South Africa.
Officers from Kenya’s Special Crimes Prevention
Unit raided premises on Ruiru and found the suspects with the drugs.
They have also confiscated the drugs, chemicals and equipment used to
manufacture them.
Demand for the drugs is usually high in South Africa, Japan and Thailand.
Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant. It
strongly activates certain systems in the brain that improve
concentration, energy, and alertness while decreasing appetite and
causing fatigue.
Although methamphetamine can be prescribed by a
doctor, its medical uses are limited, and the doses that are prescribed
are much lower than those typically abused.
Production of the drug in illegal makeshift laboratories, like
the one raided by police, endangers the people in the labs, neighbours,
and the environment.
Consumption of even small amounts of methamphetamine can result in effects similar to those occasioned by cocaine.
Additional reporting by Fred Mukinda and Oliver Kamau
source: The citizen
source: The citizen
