Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has intercepted 144 drums of imported Ethanol at the Port of Mombasa which had been misdeclared as 1000 bags of cement.
Also during the search, KRA officials from the Customs department seized a high-end motor vehicle, a Range Rover.
The Range Rover had been misdeclared as second-hand window frames, doors, folding chairs, stools, and wall pictures.
Ethanol is said to have concealed in a two by twenty feet container while the Range Rover was in a twenty-foot container.
Press Release: Concealed ethanol, high-end vehicle intercepted at Mombasa port pic.twitter.com/c2RHSAkwVm
— Commissioner, Customs & Border Control – KRA (@CommCustoms) July 5, 2019
KRA officials were able to intercept the goods by use of non-intrusive scanners which revealed the contents inside the containers.
The scanning was followed by 100% verification by the officials which accurately confirmed that indeed the containers had 28,800 liters of Ethanol and a Range Rover.
The drums with a capacity of 2,000 liters were concealed in 285 boxes of spaghetti at the entrance of the container to prevent officers from detecting them.
A similar concealment trick was discovered at the inland container depot (ICD) in Nairobi where four twenty feet containers had a uniform in the first two columns and the container ferrying the cargo stored in drums.
LAW
The importation of Ethanol is only restricted to licensed firms and dealers so as to reduce the manufacturing of illicit liquor.
Ethanol carry’s an excise duty rate of Ksh 6 million per twenty feet container imported into the country.
If the two containers were not imported, Kenya could have lost Ksh 12 million in revenue collected at the Mombasa Port.
The consignor of the high-end vehicle, a Range Rover has been established to be from Dubai, UAE, and the consignee to be from Kampala, Uganda.
