A woman who police say set up three Kenyans with drugs to Thailand in 2021 leading to their arrest was arrested in Nairobi’s Fedha estate with 700 grams of cocaine valued at Sh2.8 million.
Mary Opollo, 52 and her associate Charles Kimani, 23 were arrested in a police operation, which had been in waiting for two weeks.
They were arrested on Thursday moments after Kimani had arrived with the drugs from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, police said.
The drug is popular within Nairobi’s upmarket areas nightlife.
According to police, the woman who is a seasoned trafficker had enrolled Kimani as an apprentice of her drug trafficking network that includes Nigerian suppliers operating from an apartment in Addis and Kenyan distributors.
Earlier in 2021, Mary had dispatched three Kenyan drug couriers to Thailand but their drug mission was a failure as they were arrested and jailed there for life, police say.
Police termed her arrest a significant step in the fight against drug trafficking and consumption in the region.
This comes in the wake of sustained operation on the traffickers in the country.
Last week, police who had been investigating a cartel that has been selling heroin to students of Technical University of Mombasa arrested a suspect and recovered four kilos of the drug valued at Sh2 million.
The suspect is a son to a known and wanted drug trafficker in the area.
Cases of drug trafficking, possession and consumption in parts of the country have been on the rise despite operations to tame them.
Dozens of traffickers have since been arrested and charged in the operation.
Police are yet to net main drug lords as only mules are usually arrested.
Police say traffickers now use roads as opposed to airports to carry out their business.
Elsewhere, security teams intercepted more than 400 kilograms of bhang valued at Sh10 million along the Mwingi-Garissa highway.
Two suspects who were ferrying the drugs in a lorry carrying cows to Nairobi were arrested in the Thursday afternoon operation.
Police said the cargo was hidden in a false compartment in the lorry.
The team, which intercepted the narcotics revealed they were destined for Kiamaiko area in Huruma where a supplier was waiting to pick them up.
Police say Kiamaiko area is Nairobi’s main hub for cannabis storage and packaging.
Detectives have linked also the surge in real estate construction in the area to proceeds of drug trafficking.
The head of Anti Narcotics Unit, Samuel Laboso said they have stepped up the crackdown against drug traffickers who continue to procure drugs at the detriment of the country.
This is the latest such seizure of such drugs in the area.
Most of the bhang seized in the region originates Ethiopia.
Moyale town, the largest of the trading centres stands out as the capital of contraband that includes smuggling of Kenya’s popular variety of bhang.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
