Molo police raid unlicensed distillery, impound various brands of illicit alcohol

Police in Molo Sub-county raided an unlicensed second generation liquor distillery in Elburgon on Tuesday.

The detectives gathered that an unscrupulous businessman formerly a saw-miller had turned his sawmill into an alcohol manufacturing plant.

This came after the government had banned logging in the country.

A well-oiled operation by the security team in Molo saw the detectives sneak into the sawmill’s compound in unmarked vehicles, posing as potato farmers.

They busted three workers who were busy packing the liquor destines for the unsuspecting market.

Police arrested the owner of the sawmill now identified as James Ndegwa and three of his employees namely Fredrick Kiprotich, Joram Choge and Langat Kipng’etich.

The three suspects also played the role of quality control personnel in the production process of their illicit products.

Police recovered over 30,000 counterfeit Kenya Revenue Authority excise stamps, hundreds of litres of ethanol and empty bottles.

Also recovered were fake liquor labels, including those of popular brands such as Tripple Ace, Kibao, Konyagi (Munyangate), Chrome, Smart Vodka among others.

The police also seized an alcohometer, measuring tube, assorted synthetic flavours and other items used in the production of liquor.

Ndegewa and his accomplices are in police custody at Molo Police Station as they are being processed for arraignment in court.

The raid came in the wake of a multi-agency collaboration between the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

This has saved the country billions of shillings usually lost in revenue through counterfeit and contraband goods circulated into the markets by such unscrupulous individuals as Ndegwa.

There have been some instances where members of the public have lost their lives from the consumption of such alcoholic drinks.