Ice-cream man held over drugs in Nairobi

An ice-cream vendor in Nairobi. [Courtesy]

An ice-cream vendor was arrested at the weekend on suspicion of hawking drugs in a city estate.

Police said they recovered sachets suspected to contain cocaine, heroin and methcathinone from the man’s icebox in Pangani.

The 34-year-old suspect was also found in possession of a digital weighing machine, two unused hypodermic needles, a syringe, three lighters, a calculator, two scalpels, surgical gloves and cotton wool.

Police said the suspect was among mules operating from Nairobi’s Mathare area selling narcotics to residents in surrounding estates.

The officers noted that drug traffickers were employing different tactics to transport the illicit substances, adding that they were seizing more heroin in the informal settlement.

Anti-drug campaigners have accused police of only catching drug mules but failing to work their way up the drug supply chain to identify and arrest the main dealers and powerful barons who operate in the shadows.

Last week, customs officials intercepted bhang disguised as herbal soap at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which was destined for London.