Rwanda
National Police (RNP) yesterday arrested Lovini Wanjiku Ngoroge, 45, a Kenyan
citizen in connection with trafficking 2.5 kilogrammes of cocaine worth Rwf85
million.
Wanjiku
was arrested at Kigali International Airport enroute from São Paulo, Brazil.
The
suspect, whose final destination was Kenya, claims she made a stop-over in
Kigali enroute to Burundi where she was to visit her daughter who gave birth
recently.
"We
work closely with the Police in other countries to fight drug trafficking and
that is how we managed to arrest the suspect.
"When
she arrived at the airport, our officers approached her and searched her
luggage. Like the suspect we arrested in November, Wanjiku had the cocaine
concealed in new ladies' handbags," said the Police spokesperson Celestin
Twahirwa.
However,
Wanjiku who was paraded before the press, yesterday afternoon, denies any
knowledge of the drugs and claims she was given the handbag by a friend of hers
in Brazil to take to a sister in Nairobi.
"I
went to Brazil to seek treatment for my injured arm, that's where I met a woman
who gave me the handbags and asked me to pass them to her sister called Anne in
Nairobi," said Wanjiku who runs a saloon in Kiambu County, Kenya.
The
packaging of the drugs was similar to that in the case involving four Rwandans
arrested in November last year, also from Sao Paulo.
Police
now suspects that the drugs must be coming from the same place.
Wanjiku,
however, could not recall the name of the doctor she allegedly met nor the
hospital she went to.
The
New Times learnt that she had also travelled to Thailand - a country commonly
referred to as the cocaine capital of the world.
If
Wanjiku is tried in Rwanda and found guilty, she risks a jail sentence of
between six to ten years or a fine of between Rwf1 million and ten million
francs or both.
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