14 arrested in Nairobi raid on suspected fake gold and dollars as recent Kenyan cases show fees and forged papers

Detectives of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) based at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) searched a warehouse behind Vision Plaza in Nairobi's Industrial Area on 1 October and recovered 31 sealed black pallets, the DCI said. Three held 156 bundles of suspected counterfeit US$100 notes. The rest held cement.

The warehouse also held a plastic box with 65 suspected fake gold bars, a black bag with 13 more bundles of suspected counterfeit US$100 notes, chemicals suspected to be for making counterfeit currency, papers printed with US dollar notes, aluminium seals, seven cartons of UN blue plastic seals, two Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) reflector jackets, two empty suitcases, a padlock cutter and a hacksaw. Fourteen people were arrested. Three are police officers attached to the Security of Government Buildings unit at Uhuru Camp, and two of them carried Beretta pistols.

The raid followed a complaint by a US national at the JKIA Police Station. The news site Eastleigh Voice reported that the officers are accused of using their positions and access to provide security for a group that was awaiting a US national at the airport over a gold deal, and that the other 11 suspects are eight Kenyans, a Nigerian, a Cameroonian and a Sudanese.

The news site Citizen Digital reported on 1 October that the suspects remain in custody and that the DCI said appropriate legal action will follow once the inquiry is complete. On 2 October the same site reported that a court at JKIA allowed detectives to hold the 14 while digital forensic examiners went through their phones. Investigators told the court they were looking at money laundering under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act and at obtaining money by false pretences under section 313 of the Penal Code. The Standard reported that the DCI plans forensic examination of the notes, gold bars and chemicals and is checking whether the warehouse had been used before. Eastleigh Voice reported that the DCI said investigations into the operation and each suspect's role are ongoing.

The Nation reported on 1 June 2025 that at least 20 people, Kenyan and foreign, had been arraigned at Milimani Law Courts in the previous six months over gold scams worth at least KES 5 billion in total. Most of the scammers work from offices in high-end estates such as Karen, Kilimani and Westlands, the paper said. "Their main targets are foreigners," it said.

In a case the DCI announced on 13 December 2024, a businessman from Niger was told that gold from Mali was held by Customs in Nairobi on its way to Dubai. The DCI said scammers in Mali worked with Kenyan accomplices, who sent an invoice from a purported Kenyan logistics company said to be holding the consignment. The man paid US$100,000 to have it released, and after he travelled to Kenya the fake agents kept asking for more. The DCI said the businessman, whose company is based in Dubai, was reported to have lost over US$5 million between February and December 2024. Four suspects arraigned at Milimani on 13 December 2024 on charges of conspiracy to defraud and forgery pleaded not guilty.

On 4 February 2025 the DCI described another deal. Two businessmen, one Romanian and one Swiss, were told that 550 kg of gold sat in a godown at JKIA awaiting clearance and would move once they paid US$120,000. They paid in full and filed a complaint at Wilson Airport Police Station on 29 January 2025. Among the items detectives recovered were six expired mineral licences, two Glock pistols and 96 rounds of 9mm ammunition.

In a Milimani case reported by the Nation, representatives of a Dubai-based trader paid US$546,000 (KES 70 million) in cash between 6 and 10 March 2025 for 150 kg. They were taken to the offices of the Ministry of Mining, where a sample was tested. Seven kilograms were given as collateral and stored at Sarit Centre. The buyers did not find the collateral there; they found stones instead. Six people are accused.

An Australian investor's complaint, as set out by Citizen Digital on 9 April, begins with people approaching him in Dubai. American intermediaries introduced him to a man, and the two travelled to Mwanza, Tanzania, where a deal for 600 kg of gold was sealed. Ten kilograms were to serve as collateral and 590 kg to be shipped to Dubai. He paid KES 517,000 (US$4,000) to store what he thought was genuine gold at a Nairobi facility. An insurance company then valued the gold at nearly US$1 million, and he was told to pay half through a law firm. Before the shipment could leave, the scammers demanded a further KES 5.1 million to reroute the gold to Oman. After five days with no gold, the sellers went silent.

Citizen Digital put the investor's losses past KES 77.5 million once more than KES 6.4 million in travel and business costs are added. The site also reported USDT payments to a wallet totalling KES 70.4 million (US$545,000). Nabeel Khan, who referred to the investor as his client, said, as quoted by Citizen Digital: "It really tells us there's a larger gold fraud cartel operating here clearly." One man was arrested within 24 hours, charged at Milimani Law Courts and released on bond.

Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Hassan Ali Joho spoke of the same kind of fees at the Kenya Mining Investment Conference & Expo on 29 April, the Nation reported on 1 May. He described a scheme in which seven tonnes of gold were said to be held at an airport facility. "They only needed me to pay insurance, private jets and some facilitation for officers," he said. He told investors to verify all deals through official government channels.

In September 2017 the then Mining Cabinet Secretary, Dan Kazungu, warned that fraudsters were using false mineral dealers' licences, export permits and assay reports purporting to come from the ministry, and that they demanded large upfront payments to process export documents, Business Daily reported on 27 September 2017. The Nation's 2025 review of Milimani cases listed documents bearing the Ministry of Mining logo, dust coats, helmets, job cards and stamps, and in a second deal a KES 2.6 million invoice from a logistics company dated 17 April 2025. In one case a man allegedly posed as an official of the Directorate of Geological Surveys and Geo Information Management.

Another case involved an American investor. Kenyans.co.ke reported on 18 May that, in a statement dated 17 May, the DCI said a woman it believes to be the mastermind of a gold scam was arrested at Crystal Villas in Kilimani. The investor had been promised 400 kg of gold bars. He travelled to Nairobi, agreements and documents were prepared, and he sent KES 55,752,334 to accounts linked to the suspects. The DCI statement gives the amount lost as USDT 431,380, a cryptocurrency tied to the US dollar. The suspects went silent shortly after the transfer. A second suspect escaped, leaving a vehicle that detectives seized.

On 16 December 2024 the DCI said a US national, through his company, paid US$1,271,200 between 31 March and 30 May 2024 under a sales and purchase agreement for 2,820 kg of gold. No consignment was delivered. The DCI put the victim's loss at over US$1.35 million, and said he had paid a US citizen he contracted to protect his gold transactions US$50,000 on 29 August 2023, then US$15,000 on 24 January 2024 and US$15,000 on 28 February 2024. That man was charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and obtaining money by false pretences. He pleaded not guilty and was granted a bond of KES 10 million plus one Kenyan surety.

Kenyans are also victims. On 23 May the DCI announced the arrest in Meru County of the prime suspect in a scheme that took over KES 7.5 million from a 61-year-old retired civil servant between February and April 2026 through multiple bank and M-Pesa transactions, Capital FM reported. On 31 August the DCI said an advocate was arrested at Milimani Law Courts on a warrant over KES 69,024,800 allegedly obtained by falsely pretending he and an accomplice could sell gold bars. He pleaded not guilty, and the court remanded him pending a bail ruling.

A fake-mineral case involving a Chinese victim ended in a conviction, although the mineral was tantalum, not gold. The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) reported on 24 June that a Milimani court convicted a man of obtaining money by false pretences under section 313 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to three years or a fine of KES 10 million. The court ordered that the KES 151 million lost by a Chinese investor be refunded. A container shipped to the investor was opened overseas and found to hold drums of sand. Further investigation at the Port of Mombasa found more containers packed with sand and documented as tantalum, a mineral used in electronic components. DCI detectives arrested the man on 5 April 2024 after he arrived from Entebbe, Uganda.

The Mining (Dealings in Minerals) Regulations, 2017, made under the Mining Act, 2016 and published as Legal Notice No. 88 on 24 May 2017, set separate rules for a mineral dealer's trading licence, a processing licence, a dealer's permit and an export permit. Regulation 4 says applications for a licence or permit to deal in minerals are submitted through the online mining cadastre. Joho also said the ministry is working to publish verified lists of licensed operators, the Nation reported.

The DCI's toll-free line is 0800 722 203, listed on its website as Fichua. Reports can also be made anonymously by WhatsApp to 0709 570 000, the DCI said on 31 August.