NAKURU, Kenya, Oct 29 – A consignment of sugar worth Sh3 million on transit to the port city of Mombasa from Uganda has been recovered by police after the lorry transporting the goods was commandeered by suspected highway robbers.
According to preliminary reports, the lorry ferrying the goods was ambushed along the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu road, as robbers got away with at least 600 bags of the valuable commodity.
A sting operation by detectives saw 261 bags inside a lorry impounded recovered. The rest of the bags police say were recovered at a house in Kinare area.
Police have since arrested the driver of the lorry alongside his accomplice.
“Soon after the robbery was reported, we managed to track the lorries that ferried the sugar from the main truck and recovered the sugar,” said Nakuru DCI boss Adan Mohammed.
Officers from the Kenya Revenue Authority have been reeled into the investigations in order to establish whether the sugar might have been smuggled into the country.
“We have officers from KRA who want to make sure that the sugar has not been diverted into the local market but was destined for Seychelles as claimed by the transporters,” he said.
Police have now put entrepreneurs conducting businesses to properly vet their drivers, in a bid to establish whether they have a criminal record.
Several ongoing investigations have revealed that drivers ferrying valuable cargo are working with highway robbers in the area.
Cases of highway robbery along the Nakuru highway have been on the rise in recent months amidst heightened security by law enforcement agencies.
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