Police in Hagadera Saturday morning arrested three people and recovered three pistols and 36 bullets.
Two of them were from Hosingo in Somalia.
A refugee believed to be their ring leader and based at the Hagadera camp hired a taxi and asked the driver to collect the two at Hamey near the border.
The driver became suspicious of the passengers’ luggage. The duo told the driver that they wanted to go to Hamey, but on reaching there they changed their mind and said they wanted to go to Hagadera. They instructed the driver to take routes without security officers.
Northeastern regional commander Paul Soi told journalists that it was at that point that the driver become suspicious.
“After this information the driver further suspected that the two are not good people. He then drove them to Alnjugur AP camp where he reported the matter,” Soi said.
The police then quickly conducted a search and recovered two pistols and 23 rounds of ammunition.
Soi said the security officials interrogated the passengers to establish their motive, where they were coming from and where they were taking the weapons.
They then said one of their colleagues was waiting for them in Hagadera. They led the police to where he was. He was arrested and a firearm recovered with 13 bullets.
Northeastern regional commissioner Mohamed Birik disclosed that one of the suspects was a refugee. The nationalities of the other two are yet to be established.
He said the weapons were to be used for an attack in Dadaaab, Garissa county.
He declined to disclose where the three are being held. “I won’t disclose to you for security reasons. They are being subjected to a multi-agency security for further interrogation. I want to thank members of the public for their valuable information that led to their arrest,” Birik said.