Heroin worth over Sh1 billion found in Mombasa

342 kilograms of heroin valued at Sh1.028 billion were today discovered hidden inside a ship that is being detained at the port of Mombasa.

The head of anti-narcotics unit Hamisi Massa said the haul was found inside a diesel reservoir of the MV Al Noor which was intercepted last week off the Kenyan Coast by Kenya Navy officers. The stateless ship was then tugged to the port of Mombasa.

Addressing the media at the Port of Mombasa, Massa said the samples of drugs were subjected to inspection where they were found to contain high grade heroin.

"Upon inspection our officer stumbled on narcotics poured in the diesel tank, analysis from the government chemist have tested that the drugs contain heroin. It’s a new tactic of smuggling of drugs,” said Massa.

“The drugs were concealed by mixing them with diesel to avoid detection making it easy to distill and extract the heroin upon arrival at their intended destination,” he said adding that they were also holding 152 drums of water and diesel which had traces of heroin for further testing and analysis by forensic experts at the government chemist.

The operation that involved multi agency unit including the Kenya navy, police and anti-narcotics unit had earlier recovered sachets of heroin worth Sh 3 million.