Kenya Military Blows Up Ship Carrying $200,000 Worth Of Heroin

Kenya's military on Friday, August 14, 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.

President Uhuru Kenyetta 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 stand against drug trafficking. The coastal city of Mombasa has been cited in many security reports as a transit point for drugs headed to Asia and Europe.