Nigerian arrested with narcotics at JKIA on transit from Brazil

NAIROBI, KENYA: A Nigerian national has been arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi while carrying a powder believed to be narcotics.

The man was connecting from Sao Paolo, Brazil to Nigeria through JKIA when he was intercepted. This was after a white powder believed to be cocaine was found in his luggage.

Police say the powder was under his travelling luggage when it was detected at the scanning point.

“He is under custody and we have sent the powder that we believe to be cocaine for further testing and analysis before he takes plea,” said an officer at the anti-narcotics office.

Police say they are yet to know the value of the about six kilos of the powder.

The Saturday incident is the latest in a series of recoveries at the airport.

Police say they are experiencing an increase of the number of suspects using JKIA as a transit point for the drugs.

Police at JKIA have in the past months made arrests and seizures of drugs that are on transit.

Most of the narcotics that are seized are cocaine and heroin.

Statistics show police at the airport seized drugs valued more than Sh50 million last year alone. Most of those arrested were passengers who were on transit.

The trend shows most of the passengers on transit from Southern American countries carry cocaine. Those from Asian countries carry heroin.

Meanwhile, a Nigerian national was shot dead in a mysterious attack in Umoja estate, Nairobi.

Police say nothing was stolen from the victim and he was shot at as he entered his house where he stayed with a Kenyan woman. They had a child.

Police say they are yet to know the killers and motive of the incident because the attackers escaped as soon as they had killed him on Sunday at dawn. A team of investigators is handling the case.