Kenya blows up ship laden with heroin

Kenya’s military on Friday, said it had blown up a ship allegedly laden with substance suspected to be heroin found trying to sneak in off the Kenyan coast.

Internal Security Cabinet Secretary, Joseph Nkaissery and Chief of General Staff, Samson Mwathethe, supervised the destruction of the drugs which took place at deep sea in the coastal city of Mombasa, the authorities said.

It said that the vessel was impounded while smuggling the drugs worth 200,000 dollars by Kenya Navy who were patrolling to Indian Ocean in April.

Five suspects, four Kenyans and Seychellois were arrested with heroin in the luxury yacht worth 280,000 dollars and allegedly owned by a Briton.

It sailed around Seychelles, Tanzania and Kenya in what authorities suspected was the route of an international drug syndicate.

“This is the second vessel to be destroyed for alleged involvement in illegal drug trade,” the military said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta had in August 2014 ordered the destruction of a ship laden with heroin valued at 14 million dollars.

The ship was blown up in the high sea as a sign of the government’s tough stance against drug trafficking.

The coastal city of Mombasa has been cited in many security reports as a transit point for drugs headed for Asia and Europe.

Some of the drug lords have turned the coast region into a drug haven, with thousands of young people addicted to heroin and cocaine.

Anti-narcotics police officers say most of the drug traffickers had also been avoiding airports for roads, which were poorly manned, to traffic the drugs.

Most of the narcotics seized were cocaine and heroin. Statistics show police at the airport seized drugs valued at more than 16.4 million dollars last year alone.

Most of those arrested were passengers who were in transit.

According to latest police statistics, over 1,359 cases of drug trafficking were detected in Kenya in 2014, with 1,513 suspects arrested.

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