Five relatives arrested, cocaine, pistol seized in Nairobi

Five relatives were arrested and cocaine valued at Sh15 million recovered from them in separate operations in Nairobi.

DCI anti-narcotics sleuths raided a house in the upmarket Kileleshwa estate and arrested a wanted drug trafficker in the first operation.

The man identified as Martin Jairus Muhando Amoth aka Jay Ras has been on police radar after investigations revealed that he was making suspicious trips to and from Uganda.

Further investigations established that Jairus was part of a drug trafficking ring based in Nairobi with ties in Uganda, Ethiopia and Brazil specialising in cocaine smuggling for domestic distribution and export.

During the search at his house, about 15 pellets of suspected cocaine narcotic substance was recovered at Vue Claire apartments, Kileleshwa.

Police also recovered a Ceska cz 75 pistol in another room within the house, raising a lid on the involvement of the 27-year-old in  organized crime.

Police said Jairus has always claimed to be the son of a high ranking government official, a title he has used in the past to intimidate police officers when arrested with narcotics.

In a separate operation, his four uncles were arrested in another swoop within Nyayo Estate Nairobi, while in the company of two South African nationals, Craig Randall Philander and Dawney-Lee Nicole Abbas.

According to police, the four were found in possession of 3.072 kilograms of cocaine valued at Sh15 million.

The suspects were presented in court at JKIA as further investigations continue.

Detectives say investigations have established that MJ is a son of a veteran drug trafficker on the run in Brazil after skipping bail at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport law courts.

Police said the old man on the run from Brazil had been arrested on March 28, 2016 at JKIA from Sao Paulo–Brazil having ingested 2 kilos of cocaine.

Cases of drug trafficking have been on the decline in the past years over sustained operations at major points of entry. Despite the operations, traffickers manage to pass with the narcotics.

In 2019, the then European Union Ambassador to Kenya Simon Mordue said the Kenyan port of Mombasa accounted for 30 per cent of illegal heroin smuggled into the EU market.

He said they had engaged Kenyan authorities to handle the issue.

Most of the heroin in the country originate from Afghanistan through the Indian Ocean while cocaine originate from South America.

Kenyan security agencies seized the second-biggest haul of cocaine weighing 100 kilos and valued at Sh598 million in 2016 in Mombasa that was disguised as sugar.

The case was however dismissed in court. 

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