Police Nab Lorry Transporting Illicit Brew Worth 2m Enroute to Meru.
Kandara Police on Tuesday
Afternoon arrested three suspects and impounded a lorry after the trio were
intercepted along the busy Nairobi-Meru highway transporting 4,245 litres of 2nd
generation liquor.
According to Kandara OCPD Gregory M. Mutiso, police received
a tip off from the members of public that a vehicle registration number KBS
268V, had left their illegal factory in Kasarani carrying the spirits and
headed towards Meru. The officers laid trap in Kiwaini Area, Kabati near
Kandara Investment, Murang’a County and ordered the driver to stop.
After inspecting the vehicle, they discovered 849 cartons of
an unlicensed ‘Kingdom’ spirits stack behind empty cartons of other liquor
brands.
“These cartons were stack behind the empty cartons in disguise
that the lorry was transporting empty cartons meant to pack mineral water. The
branding on the empty cartons indicated that they were meant for alcoholic
brands. We therefore embarked on a thorough search and unearthed this liquor,”
said the police boss.
The names of the alcohol brands on these cartons, “Prof.
Agenda”, “County Extra” and “Chancellor Superior”, were said not to have been
registered as alcoholic brands under the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). The “Kingdom”
bottled spirits in the consignment were without the KRA seal to authenticate
its gentility.
Each carton holds 20 bottles of 250ml each. The market rate
for the nabbed liquor was estimated at about sh.2 million.
Preliminary investigations on the documents and alcoholic
drinks seized pointed to a certain illegal factory in Kasarani Area that was in
the news sometimes back for the same reason.
According to KRA records, the factory was closed down for manufacturing
unlicensed exercisable goods (spirits) and distributing them without exercise
duty stamps from KRA. They were also accused of affixing KRA stamps contrary to
the Exercise Duty Act of 2015 were operating without any distributor’s licence.
The three suspects were remanded pending further
investigations and will be aligned in a Kandara Court this week.
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