Six Iranians arrested as Kenya Navy intercepts vessel with drugs worth Ksh.8.2 billion
Six Iranians arrested as Kenya Navy intercepts vessel with drugs worth Ksh.8.2 billion
A multi-agency team led by the Kenya Navy has intercepted a vessel in the Indian Ocean carrying methamphetamine worth over Ksh.8.2 billion and arrested six Iranian nationals on board.
DCI Director Mohammed Amin and Kenya Navy Deputy Commander Brigadier Sankale Kiswaa confirmed that the boat was tracked some 630 kilometres east of Mombasa before being escorted to the port, where the seized substance tested positive for narcotics.
In what could be one of East Africa’s biggest drug busts in years, a multi-agency operation involving the Kenya Navy, Kenya Coast Guard, and NACADA has seized methamphetamine worth Ksh.8.2 billion and arrested six Iranian nationals who were ferrying the consignment.
The vessel was seized after Kenyan security agencies received information from regional and international partners on the suspicious boat, which was on their radar making rounds in the western Indian Ocean.
Brigadier Sankale Kiswaa, Deputy Commander of the Kenya Navy, said: “Kenya Navy was able to intercept this suspicious vessel about 630 km east of Mombasa and we have been able to conduct this operation seamlessly and we were able to arrest it and escort it to the port of Mombasa.”
With the boat seized, police moved to court where they obtained orders to detain it and conduct a search to verify the content in the sacks.
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Mohammed Amin, Director of DCI, said: “We were able to discover 769 packages of crystalline substance that was weighing 124,253 kilograms of what came out to be methamphetamine. The street value of the consignment is estimated to be Ksh.8.2 billion, equivalent to USD 63 million.”
Amin said the next phase of investigations will focus on the origin of the drugs and its destination, which they believe was to be sold in the East African region.
“It is too early for me to say the destination was point A or B, it is still under investigations. But certainly, it was destined somewhere in this region. And in terms of the source, like I said, the vessel was stateless, but on board were six Iranian nationals,” said Amin.
The six suspects are expected to appear in court on Monday as police intensify operations to track down more individuals connected to the drug trafficking network.
This latest seizure comes just two weeks after four suspects linked to an international drug syndicate were arrested for allegedly using JKIA to smuggle cocaine. The suspects were arraigned and remanded until October 29, when their case is set to be heard.
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