Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officers have seized three high-end vehicles valued at Sh40 million, at the port of Mombasa.

Customs and Border Control Commissioner Kevin Safari said the concealed vehicles, two Range Rovers and a Mercedes Benz, were seized following an intensified crackdown against importation of contraband goods.

He said preliminary findings at the verification process indicate that the three vehicles  may have stolen from the UK.

“A multi-agency verification at the Container Freight Station (CFS) where the cargo was held for confirmation, showed that the container declared to be loaded with household goods was loaded with the high-end vehicles,” said Safari, in a statement.

He said on July 30, Customs Enforcement Southern Region received scanner alert pointing towards a mis-declaration of a 40-foot container.

 The container which had been declared to contain personal and household effects was inspected non-intrusively using the Customs X-ray scanner in Mombasa. 

Image analysis

“The scanner image revealed that the contents of the container were three high-end motor vehicles, inconsistent with the declaration. The image analysis declaration inconsistencies automatically called for fully physical verification of goods,” Safari added.

The cargo manifest showed that the cargo was from UK, destined to Kampala, Uganda. 

“KRA is working in partnership with the local and international investigation and enforcement agents including   National Intelligence Service,  Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Kenyan and International Police (Interpol) to get to the root of the syndicate,” he added.

The Integrated Customs Management System (iCMS) Sea cargo regime went live at the Port of Mombasa with the clearing of the first consignment of 43,400.835 metric tonnes of clinker.

The vessel transporting the consignment, MV Ptolomeos, docked at the port of Mombasa at 6.25am on Saturday August 3 and was off-loaded to its destination.

The consignment was cleared automatically in the system, after the importer’s clearing agent, Express Shipping and Logistics (ESL), lodged entries in the system and paid duty of  Sh65 million before the arrival of the cargo.

The next bulk consignments to be cleared through iCMS were 42,000 metric tonnes of clinker and 25,540 metric tonnes of coal. 

The former arrived at the port of Mombasa on  August 7 on board MV Boreas Venture and the latter is expected to arrive on  August 21 on MV African Hoeg.