Six women arrested at JKIA trying to smuggle Sh103 million into the country
Six women were arrested at the Jommo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for trying to smuggle 857,300 US dollars (Sh103.6) million into the country.
According to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officials, the suspects, Hafsa Warsame Kuresha, Abdi Hassan Arfon, Abdi Farah Sarah Ahmen Omar, Hassan Habiba Abdi and Hodhan Mohammed, were travelling from India aboard an Ethiopian airline.
“On October 6, while clearing from an Ethiopian airline flight Number ET 318, some six women of Somali origin arrived at the customs area. They had with them luggage containing shoes and clothes. As usual the bags were scanned to establish what they contained,” KRA stated.
“The images showed items that looked like currency. Upon secondary verification, it was confirmed that the luggage contained 857,300 dollars,” KRA added.
The agency has deposited the intercepted cash into the customs warehouse for further investigations.
“KRA encourages passengers to correctly declare all cargo/items as required under the provisions of the second and third schedules of the EAC Customs Management Act, 2004,” KRA added.
This is amongst many other smuggling cases reported at the JKIA as another Kenyan man travelling from Burundi was arrested with 2 million dollars.
Custom officials arrested the man on suspicions of being part of a money laundering scheme.
In another case, a Nigerian was arrested at JKIA on his way to Dubai with foreign currency that was undeclared.
Mauzu Balala was arrested with 880,000 dollars, 60,000 Euros and 63,000 Nigerian Naira.
It is recommended by law that any persons travelling or sending parcels with huge amounts of money to declare and produce documents proving the legitimacy of the money.
