Eight held over stolen Sh36 million

By CYRUS OMBATI

Eight people are being held in connection with the attempted robbery of Sh36 million that was on transit.

They include the four Wells Fargo staff who were escorting the cash in two vans from Nairobi to Garissa on Friday when the incident happened.

At the same time, the case has been moved from Thika to Nairobi where the plot to steal the money was hatched, police said. It is now being handled by detectives from Makadara CID Division, where the suspects are being questioned.

The CID boss Zack Nanguli said they are yet to decide on who among those in custody will be arraigned in court for the crime. But he added they are yet to arrest the six gunmen wearing police uniforms who tried to steal the money.

Duped

The gunmen duped managers at the security firm and stole Sh36 million but the money was recovered 12 hours later, intact, in Ndarugo, Thika. Four AP officers were supposed to escort the money from the Wells Fargo strong room on Friday morning and were to be picked up from the Administration Police Training College’s Rapid Deployment Unit headquarters in Embakasi.

The drama started when a driver of the security firm went and picked up six gunmen in police uniform and drove them to the Wells Fargo strong room where they were cleared for Garissa.

But on reaching Juja, they diverted towards Juja Farm where they transferred the cash into the second van before driving off. They took along two Wells Fargo drivers and a guard and locked up another in the abandoned van after beating him up. The three were later found abandoned in Thika.

Back at Wells Fargo the APs who were supposed to escort the cash arrived from Embakasi wondering why they had not been picked at the agreed time. The officers were informed another crew had left with the cash to Garissa and assigned other duties.

Four hours later, passersby informed police of an abandoned Cash in Transit Van in Juja Farm. Police found the guard tied and locked up in the van.