Friday October 7, 2022
By BRUHAN MAKONG
Nairobi, Kenya, October 7- Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Customs officials at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi have apprehended six women of Somali origin attempting to smuggle USD857,300 (Sh103.6 million) from India.
According to the KRA officials, the suspects, Hafsa Warsame Kuresha, Abdi Hassan Arfon, Abdi Farah Sarah Ahmen Omar, Hassan Habiba Abdi and Hodhan Mohammed who were nabbed Thursday, were traveling from India aboard Ethiopian airline flight Number ET 318.
The cash was discovered when the Customs officials scanned the luggage in their possession.
“On 6th October 2022, while clearing Ethiopian Airline flight Number ET 318, some six women of Somali origin arrived at the Customs area. They had with them luggage’s containing shoes and clothes. As usual, the bags were scanned to establish what they contained,” KRA said in a statement.
“The images showed items that looked like currency. Upon secondary verification, it was confirmed that the luggage contained us currency amounting to 857,300USD,” it added.
The agency said that it has since deposited the intercepted cash into the customs warehouse.
On January this year, a similar incident was witnessed at the JKIA when Customs officials arrested a Bahraini national with Sh110 million in a suspected money laundering plot.
In a statement, KRA said that intercepted a male passenger identified as Khalid Jameel Saeed, who was intending to take a flight to Bahrain through Egyptian Airline.
“On 28/01/2022 based on intelligence shared by Financial Report Centre (FRC), KRA staff at JKIA Passenger Terminals intercepted a male passenger. The alert was that the passenger had earlier made several attempts to deposit the currency in a bank but had failed,” a statement read.