The High Court in Nairobi has prohibited convicted drug dealer and his counterpart from dealing in any manner with their property.
The properties include parcels of land in Mombasa County as well as a fleet of vehicles which was acquired by the two,
Justice Esther Maina issued prohibited Abdulmajid Msallam Timami who was jailed for 15 years and Said Mselem Abdallah from selling, charging or transferring three parcels of land located in Mombasa and 11 motor vehicles.
The judge ordered the land registrar to place caveats on the named properties and further directed that income derived from rent accruing from houses development on the properties be deposited in the bank account belonging to Assets Recovery Agency.
The court also directed the Director General of National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to register a caveat against each of the motor vehicles.
Timami was ordered to surrender the vehicles and logbooks to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters Kiambu road with immediate effect.
Justice Maina ruled that the orders shall last for 90 days, pending an application for forfeiture of the properties to the state.
Timami was arrested on the 22nd March 2019 at Tononoka, Mombasa County.
He was charged with the offence of drug trafficking narcotic drugs after a search in one of his vehicles and residence in Mombasa resulted in recovery of 1015.8 grams of heroin with a market value of Sh 3,047,400 was recovered.
Later the Asset recovery commenced investigations to recover proceeds of crime accrued through the illegitimate trafficking and trading of narcotic drugs.
According to investigations by ARA Timami has since acquired massive assets/properties using the proceeds obtained from the illegitimate trade of Narcotic drugs and channelled them through identified bank accounts belonging to the 1st Respondent with the intention to conceal the source of funds.
The Agency looked into the activities of Timami’s bank accounts for purposes of ascertaining whether they received and laundered any funds that are suspected to be proceeds of crime, tracing and identification of assets acquired using proceeds of crime.
The money
ARA established that bank accounts were opened and operated by Timami and received suspicious huge sums of cash and cheque deposits that indicate activities of money laundering.
According to the investigator, Timami’s bank account held at Gulf African Bank Limited was analysed for the period between 30th October 2017 to 17th August 2019 and during this period notable suspicious credits amounted to Sh 75,896,816.75 and notable suspicious debits amounted to Sh 75,795,967.89.
The money came from matured fixed deposits that had been placed from different individuals. The money was then transferred to different individuals and some was used to purchase a motor vehicle.
Timami’s bank account held at NCBA was also analysed for the period between 3rd January 2014 to 16th September 2020 and notable suspicious credits during that period amounted to Sh 155,061,904.56 and the notable suspicious debits amounted to Sh 154,532,486.40.
The money came from different individuals and was then withdrawn through cash and transferred to other individuals and companies,” said the investigator.
Finally, Timami’s bank account (USD Account) held at NCBA Bank Limited was analysed for the period between 18th September 2020 to 31st May 2021t and he total suspicious credit was USD 155,192.36 whilst the debit was USD 155,192.36 and as soon as the suspicious money was deposited into the account inform of Foreign Cheque deposits, it was immediately debited in form of cash withdrawal.
ARA told the court that they have established that Timami in collaboration with hired mules and 3rd parties obtained suspicious funds in his bank accounts from the illegitimate trade in Narcotic Drugs.