Police in Isiolo have seized bhang worth Sh200,000 which was being transported in a Moyale-bound bus. The bus was stopped at Archer's Post on the Isiolo-Moyale highway.
This comes barely a week after bhang worth Sh32 million was found hidden in compartments of two lorries.
The multi-agency team on Wednesday recovered the 10 kilogrammes of bhang stashed in the bus’s luggage compartment and arrested the driver and conductor. The vehicle was later towed to Isiolo Police Station.
Isiolo Sub-County Police Commander George Kariuki said the driver, Ahmed Ali, 43, and Ibrahim Sora Hussein, 32, will be charged with drug trafficking.
“The narcotics were seized at Sebache area, Archer's Post, and the driver and loader arrested in connection with the trafficking. We have also detained the vehicle and the two will be charged in court,” Mr Kariuki told the Nation by phone.
The police boss said they had put in place stringent surveillance measures to prevent trafficking along the highway where bhang worth over Sh60 million has been seized since January this year.
“We are on top of things and have intensified operations in efforts to curb smuggling,” he said, adding that drugs have ruined the lives of many youths in the region.
Police in the region continue to face an arduous task as they strive to arrest smugglers who have become crafty and continue to change tack every day in a bid to beat surveillance by the law enforcers.
The traffickers have in recent times been using executive cars, where the drugs are tucked inside doors, bonnets and spare tyres or under the seats. They also collude with rogue police officers who facilitate easy movement of the consignments through roadblocks.
There has been a surge in cases of police officers facilitating transport of the narcotics with the recent one involving two General Service Unit officers attached to Mariara camp in Meru County. They were arrested at Gotu while ferrying bhang worth Sh12 million in a government vehicle from Moyale.
The officers either offer escort services or get directly involved in the transportation of the drugs to avoid scrutiny of the consignments.
At least six police officers have been arrested this year, including two Moyale-based GSU officers who were nabbed in February while ferrying bhang worth Sh1.6 million and also trafficking 10 Ethiopians who had no valid passes.
Last December, a police officer and a prison warder attached to Marsabit GK Prison were arrested in Lerata, Samburu East, along the Isiolo-Moyale highway, while transporting 20 kilogrammes of bhang in a government vehicle.
Isiolo County Commissioner Herman Shambi recently told the Nation that security agencies were pursuing at least 20 notorious drug dealers in the region.
62-year-old Dida Jarso Ache, who was arrested in Murang’a in May this year while transporting bhang valued at Sh5 million in a Toyota Land Cruiser, had been arrested four months earlier while trafficking 360 kilos of bhang worth Sh7.2 million along the Kom-Merti road.
The man, whom officials say is among the notorious dealers, was in the company of Yusuf Halkano Sokono who reportedly worked with the Isiolo county government.
