-
The Nairobi bound lorry ferrying the consignment was intercepted at Athibool in Wajir county.
-
The vehicle had been divided into compartments. The drugs which were disguised as bags of cement were at the top.
Two men were sentenced to 50 years in jail and fined Sh63 million for trafficking narcotics.
Senior resident magistrate Mugendi Nyagah sentenced Mohammed Oloo and Abraham Hassan in a Wajir court on Monday.
The two were arrested ferrying 700kg of the plant worth Sh21 million on April 4, last year.
The Nairobi bound lorry ferrying the consignment was intercepted at Athibool in Wajir county.
Their vehicle had been divided into compartments. The drugs which were disguised as bags of cement were at the top.
Hassan who absconded the court session was sentenced in absentia and his Sh1 million bond forfeited to the state.
Consequently, a warrant for his arrest was issued and detectives have launched a manhunt for him.
Meanwhile, the owner of the lorry has been granted 14 days to show cause why the lorry should not be forfeited to the state.
The lorry had been branded with the name of a leading cement firm as a way of concealing the traffickers’ activities.
Officials said the traffickers also use oil tankers to haul their consignments into the country.
Most of the narcotics originate from Ethiopia where they are packaged for the market in Nairobi and other major towns.
Police say the traffickers use the porous Kenya-Ethiopia border to get their illegal consignment into the country.
The border town of Moyale in northern Kenya is an entry point for large hauls of bhang widely grown in southern Ethiopia.
Once the bhang leaves Shashamane, it heads down south to the border points of Moyale, Sololo, Corolla, Uran and Dukana. Others use Mandera- Wajir- Garissa route.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)