The son of a Scottish aristocrat has been charged in Kenya with trafficking nearly 100kg of cocaine in one of the country’s biggest drugs seizures in recent years.
Jack Marrian, 30, who attended a prestigious Kenyan school with the British cyclist Chris Froome and whose mother is Emma Clare Campbell of Cawdor, denied the charge during a court appearance in Nairobi on Thursday.
The haul was found by Kenyan police and US Drug Enforcement Agency officials in containers that had arrived from Brazil at the main Kenyan seaport last week. The class A drugs were allegedly shipped around the world in containers labelled as carrying sugar destined for Uganda.
Marrian was born into the famous line of Scottish nobility known as the Clan Campbell of Cawdor.
It is understood a Kenyan national, Roy Francis Mwanthi, has also been charged with trafficking cocaine. A third suspect, also Kenyan, had been questioned earlier by police but it was not clear on Thursday evening whether he had been charged with a crime.
The prosecution says documents found on the ship that was used to transport the cargo detailed Marrian as a director of Mshale Uganda Limited, the firm which was to receive the containers.
Police had released Marrian and his co-accused on Monday due to a requirement in Kenyan law that suspects to be charged within 24 hours of their arrest. The prosecution was initially not ready to press charges but the suspects were re-arrested on Wednesday and charged on Thursday.
Police say both Marrian and Mwanthi, a director of Inland Africa Logistics Limited, had placed calls to the people processing the cargo at the port before it was impounded. Marrian and Mwanthi deny the charges.
On his LinkedIn profile, Marrian describes himself as the head of sugar trading in south-east Africa at ED&F Sugar, a merchant that ships sugar, molasses and coffee around the world. His profile also says he is the managing director of Mshale Commodities, the Kenyan importer which the prosecution alleges was due to receive the shipment containing the cocaine.
A spokeswoman for Mshale Commodities said: “Mshale is aware of speculation regarding an allegedly compromised shipment consigned to Mshale Commodities. We can confirm that Mshale’s managing director, Jack Marrian, is assisting the Kenyan authorities to provide them with whatever information they require.
Mshale operates stringent procedures to protect the integrity of its supply chain. Until these investigations are concluded, we are unable to comment further.”
Growing up in an affluent part of Nairobi, Marrian went to the one of Kenya’s foremost international schools at the same time as three-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome. Crista Cullen, the English hockey player, was also at the Banda school at this time.
It is understood that Marrian then studied at the elite Marlborough college, where the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Eugenie were students, before going on to the University of Bristol.
In a one-word Facebook status posted on Monday, sent from the Spring Valley area of Nairobi, Marrian wrote “released”. The status has been responded to more than 30 times by friends on the social networking site but he has not updated his account since.
Marrian’s aunt, Elizabeth Campbell, told the Guardian “he’s innocent, that’s all I can say”. She declined to comment further.
A National Crime Agency spokesman said: “We are aware of the seizure and the subsequent arrest of a UK national, and have
assisted our Kenyan and US law enforcement partners. However, this is now a matter for the Kenyan authorities so it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
The maximum penalty for drug trafficking in Kenya is a life sentence and a fine of more than $10,000 (£7,600).
The seizure was a rare one in Kenya, which has become a cocaine distribution hub in recent years, according to the UN and the US. Traffickers from South America are said to take advantage of Nairobi’s extensive air links to Europe and Asia.
They also exploit Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline and lack of adequate security controls at the port of Mombasa, the US
Department of State’s 2016 narcotics control strategy report said.
Stemming the flow of drugs is a challenge for Kenyan authorities, the report said, citing “corruption within the Kenyan government and business community ... High-level prosecutions or large seizures remain infrequent”.
For more than a decade, police in Kenya have been named as the most corrupt institution in the country by the local body of global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.