Since the ban of Khat in European nations , detectives have been on high alert to ensure the stimulant does not find its way to the countries its considered illegal.
Miraa consignment(Dried Khat) weighing about 1700Kgs concealed and declared as personal effects and ready for export to the United States, France & Singapore was on Wednesday afternoon confiscated by DCI Detectives.Police sources said Investigations had immediately commenced to nab suspects.
#ConcealedGoods|Miraa consignment(Dried Khat) weighing about 1700Kgs which was concealed and declared as personal effects&ready for export to the United States, France & Singapore was today afternoon confiscated by #DCI Detectives.Investigations already commenced to nab suspects. pic.twitter.com/CfAXjiGTiO
— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) November 14, 2018
It is illegal in the US and became a banned class C drug in Britain in 2014.
The plant, which is cultivated largely in eastern Africa, contains stimulants that are released when its stems and leaves are chewed. It has long been popular among some communities of Somali, Yemeni and Ethiopian descent.
It contains cathinone, which is a Schedule I controlled substance in New York, and cathine, a schedule IV controlled substance.
Theresa May, the British home secretary, introduced the ban against the advice of her official advisory committee on the misuse of drugs.
The ban was also criticized by the home affairs committee of MPs, which warned it would create tensions between police and immigrant communities and was not based on evidence that using khat caused medical or social harm.
For hundreds of years, khat—also known as miraa in Kenya and chat in Ethiopia—has thrived as a socio-cultural commodity. In the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, where khat is grown and traded, it has had the distinct quality of promoting interaction among people from different religions, ethnicities, and race. It has also been associated mostly with the male gender, many of who control the businesses, and who devote hours chewing it in both public and private spaces.
An estimated 500,000 Kenyans depend on khat cultivation and sale for their livelihoods, with Britain said to have been importing some $25 million worth of the leaves annually before the 2014 ban. More than 15 cargo planes full of khat also leave Kenya for Somalia daily, with a retail value of $400,000.