Assets owned by four linked to drugs frozen

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) has obtained court orders freezing the property of three individuals and a car dealer suspected of drug trafficking.

The agency took the action after the individuals were arrested on suspected drug-related offences.

A High Court in Mombasa granted the ARA orders against Stephen Vicker Mangira, Nabil Loo Mohamed, Bakari Kila Bakari and Ali Cars Limited. The property includes cash amounting to over Sh21.6 million and eight motor vehicles whose sale or transfer is now prohibited.

“It is hereby ordered that preservation order be granted against each one of the respondents or their employees, agents, servants and any other person acting on their behalf prohibiting them from transacting, and or dealing in the seized cash,” read the ruling.

The accused have also been ordered to surrender the original log books of the motor vehicles by Tuesday next week.

The court has directed the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) director-general Francis Meja to register a caveat against the records of each of the motor vehicles.

In its application filed as urgent on July 13 2017, the ARA had asked the court to allow the seized cash to be deposited at the agency’s account held at the Central Bank of Kenya.

Early this year, Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa put drug dealers in the region on notice saying police operations targeting traffickers would be intensified.

The arrest of the three follows Marwa’s announcement. Investigations linked them to drug-related offences resulting in their prosecution at Shanzu.

In an affidavit, ARA director Muthoni Kimani said further investigations concluded that the motor vehicles and the cash belonging to the respondents are from illegitimate sources as they could not demonstrate they run a legal business.