Mombasa, KENYA: Police in Likoni Mombasa county conducted a large scale operation over night at the Ferry channel and arrested 13 members of criminal gangs armed with crude weapons.
12 machetes and knives were seized from the suspects, Likoni police chief Willy Simba confirmed to Baraka FM on Sunday.
The police chief said they had received intelligence reports that some members of a criminal gang which is yet to be revealed, were planning to cause mayhem at Mama Ngina grounds where thousands of residents had converged to celebrate the New Year.
He said security agents had a brief meeting and dozens of security officers majority in civilian were mobilized at the ferry channel; where they carried out a search and managed to arrest 13 suspects.
“We are profiling them,we are yet to identify which sect they belong. So far we have several machetes and knives we confiscated from the suspects,” said the police boss.
Majority of the suspects are aged between 15 and 22 years.
He said the suspects have been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department and they have begun interrogating them in order to locate their network.
The suspects are held at Likoni police station.
Two criminal gangs of wakali wao and the young thugs are known by the authorities to be operating in Likoni sub-county.
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The arrest comes barely a day after Interior CS Joseph Nkaisery revealed that there are 90 illegal criminal gangs operating in various parts of the country, terming them as outlawed.
The young thugs and Wakali wao based at the Coast, are among the gangs listed by the CS.
