Ex-presidential hopeful Jaffer Isaak arrested with Sh13m bhang

Businessman Jaffer Isaak Sora in a past picture: He has been arrested transporting bhang suspected to be from Ethiopia. [File, Standard]

Former presidential aspirant Jaffer Isaak Sora was Wednesday arrested in Marsabit town after police found 445 kilograms of bhang worth Sh13.3 million in his vehicle.

Sora, who contested the presidency in 2013, was nabbed at a roadblock near Marsabit town driving a Toyota Prado Landcruiser that was towing a trailer carrying the drugs, police said.

He reportedly declined to allow the officers manning a barrier to search the trailer, prompting them to impound his vehicle.

Eastern police boss Esther Kihiko said the officers at the roadblock escorted the Prado and the trailer to Marsabit Police Station where a thorough search was conducted and a total of 445 kilogrammes of the narcotics found therein.

"He will be charged in court over the offence," she said.

Sora, a businessman in Isiolo town expressed interest in the 2022 presidential race.

The vehicle and trailer the businessman Jaffer Isaak Sora was driving. [Courtesy]

Ethiopian bhang

Police say there has been a high supply of processed bhang from Ethiopia to Kenya. Some hauls have been intercepted in Nairobi and Nakuru.

Meanwhile, six people were arrested in a police operation in Nairobi against drug trafficking and narcotics valued at about Sh4 million found on them.

Detectives said those nabbed were behind the trafficking of the heroin, cocaine and marijuana that was intercepted.

The first victim was a woman who was found in possession of half a kilo of heroin in her residence in Donholm phase 8.

The woman is said to have vast connections with Nigerian drug traffickers in east Africa who supply her with both cocaine and heroin.

She recruits and trains couriers/mules to traffick the narcotics to various parts of the world mostly China and Hong Kong, police said.

The woman is expected in court today.

Detectives from Anti-Narcotics Unit and Special Crime Prevention Unit conducted an operation in Kinoo area, which led to the arrest of a woman, her two daughters and a son-in-law.

The four were arrested after police raided their residences when they got information that the individuals were keeping drugs in their houses.

During the operation police officers recovered 1.5 kilogrammes of heroin and a sackful of marijuana

“The four were controlling a portion of Nairobi’s drug market namely Westlands, Kangemi, Uthiru, Kinoo and Kikuyu,” said police in the operation.

Earlier on, the officers had intercepted a narcotics package from a suspect in remand Schola Namunyu Imbiti on the way to Mombasa via a bus.

The package tested positive for cocaine and was 350 grams in weight with a street value of Sh1.2 million. She is currently at Langata Women remand.

She has in the previous past faced drug trafficking as well as cybercrime charges alongside Bulgarian criminals but has managed to quash the cases through bribery.

“The woman is a notorious drug trafficker who has eluded police for a year but her criminal acts have finally caught up with her,’’ a police source was quoted.

Police have in the past made such seizures but failed to make a follow up on the source to burst the web behind the supply.

All indications are that the main dealers or barons behind the drugs are powerful and monied and hide behind the mules who are usually arrested and later arraigned.

Drug abuse in Nairobi slums has become rampant and these narcotics are easily available.

Anti-narcotics campaigners contend the narcotics have ruined many people’s lives in the city.

Cases of drug trafficking have been on the rise in the country even as most traffickers avoid the mainly used routes in their business. Police say they now use roads as opposed to airports to carry out their business. The most commonly trafficked narcotics from Tanzania and through Uganda is heroin. Cocaine is also trafficked from the two countries.

Kenya made the second biggest seizure in July 2016 and arrested two suspects who were linked to the 100 kilograms of cocaine valued at Sh598 million disguised as sugar.