EXPLOSIVE DETONATORS SEIZED AT TAVETA BORDER

EXPLOSIVE DETONATORS SEIZED AT TAVETA BORDER

By Donald Kogai

Customs officers based at the Taveta-Holili

One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) seized 1,000

pieces of explosive detonators at Mwakitau

along the Taveta-Mombasa highway. Three

suspects were arrested in connection to the

incident.

The KRA team, backed by administration police

officers attached to the OSBP, while on routine

patrols intercepted the devices while being

transported together with Tobacco by a truck no

T143ARG at around 5.30 pm, one kilometer

away from Maktau roadblock, Taita Taveta

County.

The consignment in the vehicle had been

declared at the border point as raw tobacco

from Moshi Tanzania and was destined to

Mombasa. However, on being stopped and upon

rummaging by Customs officers, and checking

the cabin, the officers found two packages of

Supreme Plain detonators in the vehicle.

The truck was escorted back to the OSBP. Upon

being interviewed, the driver claimed the

detonators were handed over to him at Taveta

town to be delivered to the owner at Mwatate.

A joint verification by the multiagency team

from KRA, Directorate of Criminal Investigations

office and officers from the National Police

Service confirmed the parcel contained 1,000

pieces of detonators, which had been packed in

10 boxes containing 100 pieces each. The

vehicle and the detonators were detained and

deposited in the Customs warehouse.

The suspects, including a person who

presented himself at the station with a mining

permit and claiming to be the owner of the

detonators, the driver of the truck and a turn

boy who are both Tanzanian nationals, were

arrested and handed over to the Anti-Terrorism

Police Unit. They will be charged with

contravening the Explosive Act