Detectives based at Moyale Sub County Monday recovered narcotic drugs hidden in sacks of beans that were destined for an unknown location.
Acting on information from members of the public, the detectives responded to a report of a suspicious person with four sacks of beans at a bus booking office.
Upon arrival, they discovered that the sacks had been left unattended at the entrance of the said booking office, and the owner was nowhere to be found, as he was claimed to have gone for authorization papers from local KRA offices.
To determine the contents of the sacks, the officers sought the assistance of a police sniffer dog, which identified the presence of something suspicious inside the sacks, police said.
The four sacks were escorted to DCI Moyale offices where they were opened, revealing 22 bales of cannabis sativa with an estimated street value of Sh435,000.
Efforts to trace and arrest the suspect who is still at large are ongoing, and the recovered cannabis sativa is being kept under lawful custody as an exhibit, police said.
It has since emerged the cargo was headed for Nairobi, police added.
This is the latest such seizure to take place on the route.
Most of the bhang seized in the region originates from 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.
Apart from Moyale, other border points used by the crooks to smuggle in bhang include Sololo, Uran, Forolle and Dukana.
Police say dealers use peddlers to bring the bhang into Kenya in small batches using unofficial or unpatrolled routes especially at night to these centres, with Moyale town accounting for more than 75 percent.
Light vehicles, boda-boda, donkey carts and couriers are also used to sneak in the cargo undetected along the border.
It is from these centres that the bhang is transported to Nairobi using two different routes -the direct Moyale-Nairobi highway via Marsabit town and Isiolo and the unofficial route, a cutline that runs from Funannyata in Sololo to Yamicha plains of Merti sub-county in Isiolo.
More attention is being put on the route to stop the trend, police said.
The trade is vicious as at times smugglers use gunmen to transport the contraband.
The narcotics are widely consumed in urban areas and mainly in Nairobi, police say.
Multi-agency teams have intensified the war on narcotics in several parts of the country dismantling many cartels behind the business.
Many of the cases are pending in court.
