Goods that were allegedly stolen from an Indian national have been recovered in Uganda.
DCI in a statement on Saturday said the goods estimated to be worth more than Sh267 million were lost to suspected fraudsters based in Uganda assisted by local suspects.
The Investigations into the fraud brought together seasoned officers from DCI’s Serious Crimes Unit, officers from Uganda Police Criminal Investigations Department and INTERPOL.
The DCI said the complainant, a Chief Executive of one of the leading chemical industries supplied a consignment of 104 containers of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).
The consignment was supplied to the suspected fictitious companies between December 12, 2022 and April 22, 2023.
Caustic soda is used as a reagent in laboratories and also as a cleansing agent.
“According to the complainant who flew to Kenya from India to file his report at DCI headquarters, five companies had ordered for the consignment which was delivered through the port of Mombasa, between January 31, 2023 and May 15, 2023,” DCI said.
“But immediately the last container was offloaded at the port, the consignees who had not paid for the shipment went under, and severed communication with the supplier,” the statement reads.
It was because of this that investigations into the fraud bringing together various teams in Kenya and Uganda as wee as Interpol was lunched.
It was until Friday that the team recovered 7,420 bags equivalent to seven containers of the product at a depot in Uganda’s Industrial Area in Kampala.
“Efforts to recover the rest of the shipment and arrest the suspects involved are ongoing,” DCI said.
Just last week, detectives on recovered an assortment of cooking appliances that had allegedly been stolen while on transit to Malindi from the port of Mombasa.
One suspect was arrested following the operation by detectives from DCI.
The appliances were recovered at Saika area within Nairobi County by a joint team of detectives drawn from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau based in Nairobi.
The officers were assisted by their counterparts from based in Kilindini.
According to the DCI, the container with the goods worth over Sh10 million is suspected to have been diverted by the driver in collaboration with others.
The driver failed to deliver the goods to the intended recipient, claiming that the truck had developed mechanical problems at Kikambala, along Mombasa-Malindi highway.