A day after flying squad detectives raided Barclays bank and arrested six suspects who led police to a vault where they stumbled on Ksh 2B fake currency in a black box, bomb experts are said to have been called in after a separate safe deposit box was discovered with a suspicious cargo which police say weighed over 70 kg.
The cargo which police took away to later emerged to fake gold. Further investigations reveal that the suspects are part of a larger international syndicate who lure unsuspecting people into the banks and con them using the fake money.
The money according to DCI detectives George Kinoti, is said to have been deposited in November 2018 and police suspect that due to the time period, then a number of business people may have fallen trap to the syndicate and as a result loosing their money.
Alongside those police took to cuastody is a manager in a top company, who would have been swindled out of Sh10 million.
The witness had reportedly fallen for the story by the fraudsters that they were international investors after being shown the money in the vault, which they passed off as capital for their business venture.
6 People were arrested today evening by @DCI_Kenya Detectives in connection with Fake currency amounting to slightly over 20Million US Dollars @Barclays_Kenya~Queensway Branch. The fake notes in 100 Dollar denominations were recovered from the Bank’s Safe Room|@Barclays_Kenya pic.twitter.com/nxIYOW7icE— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) March 19, 2019
DCI boss George Kinoti spent several hours art the top bank finding out why customers were allowed to keep suspicious items in the safe deposit boxes and further use the privacy of the vault to con unsuspecting Kenyans.
“I will talk to you later. This thing seems to be massive and many people are suffering,” said Kinoti.
The two bank officials, Boaz Ochich and Charles Manzi, were also arrested and will be arraigned in court for colluding with suspects against banking ethics to defraud Kenyans.