Customs officers at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport have intercepted a parcel containing 1,320 grams of methamphetamine that was destined for Las Piñas in the Philippines. The seizure took place at the United Parcel Service-G4S facility on Wednesday night after the package’s appearance raised suspicions among officers on duty.
The parcel, valued at Ksh 10.56 million, had been declared as “handmade bags and clothes,” but a careful physical examination told a different story. Officers discovered white crystalline substances hidden inside two handbags, where the drugs had been wrapped in clear plastic bags and carefully sealed to avoid detection.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations confirmed that laboratory tests conducted on the specimen returned a positive result for methamphetamine. “The consignment has since been seized and detained as an exhibit,” the DCI stated.
Detectives have since opened an investigation to track down and apprehend those behind the trafficking operation.
The latest bust comes barely a week after authorities at JKIA cracked open two separate methamphetamine shipments worth a combined Sh22 million, uncovered during a routine multi-agency verification exercise at a local cargo shed. Officers from the Anti-Narcotics Unit and various airport security stakeholders jointly carried out the operation.
The first major find involved a package transiting from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with the Philippines listed as its final destination. Although the shipping manifest described the contents as “car piston samples,” a physical inspection quickly dismantled that cover story.
Officers pulled out a suspicious whitish crystalline substance concealed inside the mechanical parts, and preliminary field tests confirmed it as methamphetamine. That consignment weighed approximately 1,730 grams and carried an estimated street value of Sh13.84 million.
Hot on the heels of that discovery, investigators scored a second breakthrough when they intercepted a shipment that had originated from Juja Sub-County in Kiambu County and was also headed for the Philippines. This time, traffickers had attempted to bury the drugs within a collection of handbags, but vigilant officers noticed an unusual structural weight in the items that gave the game away.
Upon opening the bags, they found secret compartments sewn into the linings of three packages, with false bottoms hiding roughly 1,020 grams of clear crystalline methamphetamine valued at Sh8.16 million.
The three seizures at JKIA form part of a broader and intensifying battle against methamphetamine trafficking through Kenya, one that reached a dramatic peak in October when a coordinated sting operation in the Indian Ocean netted a stateless vessel carrying a jaw-dropping 1,024 kilograms of methamphetamine valued at Ksh8.2 billion, one of the largest drug busts in the country’s history.
That single haul underscored Kenya’s growing exposure as a transit corridor for industrial-scale narcotics shipments moving between Asia and other destinations.
Also Read – Seven Charged Over Ksh192 Million Meth Linked to Larger Ksh8.2B Drug Haul
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