Drug Barons Crafts New Way Of Laundering Money

Recent police investigations have established that the matatu industry is being used by drug dealers to launder money, the investigations by police attached to the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) has led to the unearthing of rich individuals who invest heavily in the industry while drug trafficking.

The state via the justice system have waged a war against drug trafficking and money laundering. In a most recent case the ARA arrested one Mrs Rose Musanda Monyani who has invested heavily in the industry but can not pin point her source of capital. Mrs Monyani was charged at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport court on June 17 with trafficking narcotics.

Tracing five buses to the woman, investigators established she was using drug money to invest, dividing parts of the proceeds of the illegal trade to various businesses, including running matatus. “Mrs Monyani has not been able to give reasonable explanation to prove any legitimate source of the same. Our investigations have established that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the assets and funds in issue are proceeds of crime obtained through an illegitimate trade in narcotic drug substances,” court papers stated.

When Officers searched her home, they discovered Sh25 million and an unknown substance, (later found to contain heroin at 40 per cent purity) in her Kinoo home. Further investigations show that she had acquired assets and registered them under her name and proxies so as to conceal the source of the funds.

It’s also emerging that drug traffickers have networks in multiple countries and use close relatives and proxies to trade.The mules do most of the dirty work like distributing the drugs for and on behalf of barons within and outside the country. The drug lords, using the money then acquire a lot of assets and register them under their names and companies to disguise the source of the funds.

In a bid to corner these criminals, in March, the Attorney-General Paul Kihara, during a tour of Lamu, Hindi and Mpeketoni towns in the compantogether with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji, urged residents to reveal drug dealers. “You have the police and administration departments here with you. Kindly cooperate with them and if they are the ones collaborating with the peddlers, inform us so that we can have them replaced by others who can work to end the vice,” Justice Kihara said.