NDEA Communiqué - Kenyan Liwasa gets life sentence for drug importation |12 February 2016

Kenyan businessman Rashid Mohamed Liwasa has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the importation of drugs into 

Seychelles.

The sentence was imposed in the Supreme Court on February 10, 2016.

This is the second life sentence to have been imposed under amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Farmer and carpenter Jean-Francois Adrienne and driver Terrence Servina, both hailing from Mont Plaisir, Anse Royale, were sentenced to life imprisonment in July last year after 47 kilogrammes of cannabis were seized on land owned by one of them during an intelligence-led operation.

When 41-year-old Liwasa’s luggage was checked by Customs officers on his arrival from Kenya on August 25, 2013 they alerted the National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA) after they discovered suspicious items in his luggage. On being arrested he was found to be carrying 683 grammes of heroin with a street value of R2.4 million.

According to a communiqué from the NDEA, it is believed that the drugs were intended to be sold on to locally based criminals for internal consumption.

Offences under the amended Misuse of Drugs Act that carry a life sentence include the offences of manufacturing, importing and trafficking an amount in excess of 250 grammes.

The NDEA together with other stakeholders deployed at the airport on front line duties conduct intensive monitoring of arriving passengers and cargo to ensure that the primary goal of preventing the arrival of controlled drugs into the country is achieved. The ongoing cooperation between the agencies has ensured that several large consignments of drugs have been seized and taken out of circulation in recent times.

The trial of a number of persons for the importation of 36 kilogrammes on March 21, 2015 is currently ongoing in the courts.