Police uncover syndicate where farmers grow and export opium

By Cyrus Ombati and Anthony GitongaPolice have unearthed a syndicate in which farmers in Njabini area, Kinangop District have been planting opium and exporting as flowers to Europe.The farmers, police said, have been intentionally cultivating the plants and exporting them to Holland. Opium contains several percentages of morphine, an alkaloid, which is processed to Police officers uproot opium plants on Tuesday that were growing on a farm in Njabini, Kinangop. Photo: Antony Gitonga/Standard produce heroin for the illegal drug trade.Heroin trade is banned in the country. A kilo of the drug goes for about Sh1 million in the black market.A farmer was on Tuesday arrested after police were informed of the syndicate and several plants uprooted from his farm.The man, who police identified as David Kamau Kariuki, claimed he has been in the business since 1994 and his main market was Holland.“I don’t know if it is a drug because I have been planting it since 1994. I sell it in Europe through brokers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport,” said Kamau.On Tuesday was the first time that such a plant was allegedly discovered by detectives in the area.Officers from CID headquarters and Anti-Narcotics Unit led by Mr Sebastian Ndaru said they had been tipped about the plantation by the public.“It seems he has been doing the business for long, but we do not know how the plant passes many airports,” said Ndaru who took samples of the plant to the Government Chemists in Nairobi for tests.Someone walked to CID headquarters, Mazingira building and complained why police had not invaded the farm, which he said contributes to production of heroin in the world.The farm is located on a riverbed and had other crops like maize and beans.Kamau was busy tilling the quarter acre of the farm when armed police arrived and questioned him before starting to uproot the crop.He was later told his crime and handcuffed.Two sacksThe plant, which according to Kamau takes six months to mature, was in its early stages. He said he last harvested more than 3,000 stems of the plant in November and successfully exported them to Europe.Neighbours, who were shocked to see police uproot the poppy-plants, called them flowers.According to a village elder, Mr Peter Mbugua, the plant had been grown in the area for years.“We have grown these flowers and other species for long and delivered them to Holland for auctioning and nobody has claimed they are drugs,” he said. Mbugua added the price of the plant fluctuates from one season to another.David Kamau, a suspect arrested yesterday for planting opium. Photo: Evans Habil/StandardAfter uprooting the plants and stuffing them into two sacks, police later went to Kamau’s house where they seized documents showing he had been exporting the plant for years. Kamau could not explain where he got the seeds of the opium to enable him continue planting it. He claimed a plane dropped the seeds on his farm long time ago.“We sometimes sell a stem at 30 Euros and sometimes it drops to ten. I have been feeding my family using this flower business,” he said.Police said they will arraign him in court today, but it is not clear what charges he will be facing.

Police uncover syndicate where farmers grow and export opium

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Police uncover syndicate where farmers grow and export opium

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