The Ethiopian Customs Commission seized cocaine weighing 97 kilograms worth more than Sh1.4 billion at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.
A female passenger was arrested after she arrived with the luggage on Wednesday containing the narcotics.
Image: COURTESY
Officials said preliminary tests had shown the drugs were worth 773 million birrs (US$14.6million).
The passenger who departed from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and arrived in Addis Ababa was arrested by the Customs Commission Airport Branch, as she tried to smuggle 97.48 kilograms of cocaine with two suitcases.
Local media said the commission confirmed that the suspect was arrested trying to pass two bags weighing 48.62 and 48.86 kilograms each, through the low-risk level (Green Line), where transit passengers and passengers carrying duty-free and non-taxable goods exit.
She tried to hide the items in her luggage by wrapping them in aluminium foil, as if they were books, to avoid x-ray probation, but further, inspection confirmed that the luggage was packed with cocaine.
“If the drug escaped through the inspection checkpoint and delivered to terrorists, it would cause a huge social and economic crisis and potentially threatens the well-being of citizens,” said the Customs Commission.
The seizure puts officials at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on the spot over their safety to ensure such narcotics don’t pass.
The Ethiopian officials informed the Kenyan ones to pursue the source of the drugs.
Kenyan officials said this is the biggest recovery yet in as many months to happen.
This means the trafficking lords are making a comeback after a long time.
In 2019, the then European Union Ambassador to Kenya Simon Mordue said the Kenyan port of Mombasa accounted for 30 per cent of illegal heroin smuggled into the EU market.
Most of the heroine in the country originates from Afghanistan through the Indian Ocean while cocaine originates from South America.
Kenyan security agencies seized the second-biggest haul of cocaine weighing 100 kilos and valued at Sh598 million in 2016 in Mombasa which was disguised as sugar.
The case was however later dismissed in court.
Source: The Star
