This archive report was first published on 13 August 2019.
Kenyan authorities have made a significant breakthrough in the fight against car theft, with the seizure of three high-end vehicles worth an estimated Sh40 million at the port of Mombasa on July 30, 2019.
According to the Kenya Revenue Authority, the vehicles, including two Range Rovers and a Mercedes, had been concealed as household goods and were believed to have been stolen from the United Kingdom.
The vehicles were found in a 40-foot container at the port while being transported to Kampala, Uganda, and were confiscated in an intensified crackdown by a multi-agency team against the importation of contraband goods.
Speaking to the press, a Kenya Revenue Authority official revealed that the seizure was made possible by a scanner alert pointing towards mis-declaration of the contents of the container.
“The container was inspected non-intrusively using the customs x-ray scanner in Mombasa. The scanner image revealed that the contents were three high-end vehicles, inconsistent with the declaration,” the official said.
Physical verification at the Container Freight Station (CFS) confirmed the finding, and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) is now working with detectives from agencies including the National Intelligence Service and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to investigate the car theft syndicate.
