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KQ staff nabbed with 23kg gold in India worth ksh100m – PHOTOS


A Kenya Airways staff was on Sunday arrested in Mumbai, India with 23 kilogrammes of smuggled gold estimated to be worth ksh100 million.

Sahar Police intercepted Mr Abdalla Ali Said as he attempted to check in at a five-star hotel near the airport, according to online magazine The Times Of India.

Abdalla Ali Said, 29, arrived in Mumbai aboard Kenya Airways flight KQ210 around 4pm.

This is the biggest-ever gold seizure from an airline crew member in the city.

The suspect had concealed the gold in specially made knee caps and waist belt.

An accomplice, Ibrahim Ali Hussein, 26, who was supposed to collect the gold was also arrested from the hotel.

The two were arrested after one of the hotel’s employees got suspicious as another foreign national kept walking close to the suspect on the premises, said the police.

The suspects later confessed to the police that it was easy for him to get cleared by customs at the airport because airline crew are usually not frisked physically and only their baggage is checked.

His accomplice Mr Hussein had been staying at a hotel on Mohammed Ali Road in south Mumbai since January 4 on a three-month tourist visa.

He claimed to be a cloth merchant who is in Mumbai on an official tour.