Envoy summoned over Sh23bn drugs haul

The Australian High Commissioner in Nairobi was on Sunday summoned over the seizure of Sh23.2 billion heroin haul off the Kenyan Coast.

The meeting between Foreign Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed and Mr Geoff Tooth took place as Kenyan authorities maintained that they had been kept in the dark regarding the shipment, which was seized by the Australian Navy in the Indian Ocean last Thursday.

The heroin was packed in 46 sacks that were hidden among bags of cement and was being transported in a dhow that was sailing approximately 27 nautical miles from the Kenyan coastline.

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo said they had not formally received information about the operation and thus knew nothing beyond that was reported by the media.

“I will refer you to the Foreign Affairs ministry and the Australian High Commission because it has nothing to do with the National Police Service for now, because it has not been formally reported to us,” Mr Kimaiyo told the Daily Nation Sunday.

He did not say whether the police had launched their own investigations in the wake of reports about the seizure of such a large haul of heroin so close to the country’s shore line.

Intercepted

Crucial details about the seizure remained unknown including the direction the vessel was moving in when it was intercepted.

Details about the origin and the destination of the dhow, whether there were any suspects arrested as well as their whereabouts and that of the boat were not revealed by the Australian Navy, which announced the seizure.

A statement by the Australian Navy on Friday said the drug haul was destroyed at sea.

It also did not reveal the identity of the boat, its owners as well as the country it was registered in, and the fate of the crew.

Of interest to Kenya would be whether the drugs were coming to or from the country, and the local connection to the boat and its cargo.

Although the seizure was made in international waters outside the 12-mile border, it was within Kenya’s 200-mile exclusive maritime economic zone.

International security experts have increasingly warned in recent times that narcotics smuggling, rhino and elephant poaching and money laundering were all linked to financing of terrorism in the region.

“Late on the 23rd April, HMAS Darwin located a suspicious dhow and deployed her boarding team. Working throughout the night, the boarding team discovered 46 sacks of heroin hidden amongst bags of cement,” the statement said. The haul weighed 1,032 kilogrammes.

In the statement, the Coalition Maritime Force (CMF) director of operations, Captain Craig Powell said the drug interception “showcased the positive results being achieved in the Middle East maritime environment.”

“This latest interception is the largest heroin haul in the history of CMF with a street value of approximately $289 million (Sh23.2 billion). The success of this interdiction is testament to the highly effective interoperability of HMAS Darwin with the UK led Combined Task Force 150 under the Combined Maritime Forces, and the professionalism of Darwin’s crew.”

Commanding Officer Terry Morrison said the seizure puts a major dent in terrorist funding networks.

“This is a major heroin seizure, which has removed a major source of funding from terrorist criminal networks. The search tested the steel of Darwin’s boarding parties who were working in difficult conditions throughout the night,” the commander said.

The foreign force was taking part in Operation Slipper, the Australian Defence Force contribution to the international campaign against terrorism, counter smuggling and counter piracy in the Middle East maritime security environment, an area of over two million square miles, encompassing the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman.

The area where the haul was intercepted is a major route used for trafficking narcotics.

Kenya has in the past been listed as a key transit country for drugs destined for Europe and America.

Security sources told the Nation that a dhow, as described by the Australian Navy, would not be sailing in the high seas and suggested that the consignment could have been offloaded from a larger vessel.

The smaller vessel would then sail to a secluded point near the shore, where the drugs would have been offloaded and repackaged, disguised as something else. It would then be transported to its final destination.

Kenya serves as transit country for drugs consumed in America and Europe with only a minute fraction consumed locally.

In February, Australians seized and destroyed 353kg of heroin off the Tanzanian coast.

The haul was discovered by Australian Navy crew who were sailing aboard HMAS Melbourne.

The Australian military also linked the earlier seizure to networks that fund terrorism.

“Melbourne has once again demonstrated how beneficial Australia’s commitment is to the Indian Ocean region and the fight against international terrorism and violent extremism,” the earlier statement said.

Combined Maritime Forces is a multinational naval partnership, which was established to promote security, stability and prosperity across approximately 2.5 million square miles of international waters.