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Kenya to destroy yacht with narcotics in high seas

The ship was impounded by Kenya Navy patrol vessels in April this year and five suspects among them four Kenyans and a Seychellois arrested with heroin worth Sh20 million in the vessel which is allegedly owned by a Briton/CFM

The ship was impounded by Kenya Navy patrol vessels in April this year and five suspects among them four Kenyans and a Seychellois arrested with heroin worth Sh20 million in the vessel which is allegedly owned by a Briton/CFM

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 14 – The Kenya Defence Forces will Friday sink a Sh28 million luxury yacht found with narcotics in the Indian Ocean.

The ship was impounded by Kenya Navy patrol vessels in April this year and five suspects among them four Kenyans and a Seychellois arrested with heroin worth Sh20 million in the vessel which is allegedly owned by a Briton.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery will lead a team of government officials including Chief of Defence Forces General Samson Mwathethe, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet, Navy Commander Major General Franklin Mghalu and PS Monica Juma among others in witnessing destruction of the vessel.

According to police, the yacht sails between the Seychelles, Tanzania and Kenya in what police suspect is part of an international drugs syndicate.

This will be the second ship to be destroyed off the Kenyan Coast for involvement in the illegal drugs trade.

Last year President Uhuru Kenyatta witnessed the destruction of another ship as a sign of the government’s commitment to eradicate the drugs menace in the country.

President Kenyatta witnessed destruction of the ship from a helicopter overflying the Indian Ocean in August 2014.

The ship had been carrying heroin worth Sh1 billion when it was intercepted off the Kenyan Coast near Lamu by Kenya Navy officers.

President Kenyatta said the incident will serve as a lesson to those bent “on ruining our children. We do not care who owns the ship or the drugs.”

“We will not allow drug barons to destroy the future of our young people. We will track and deal with them decisively,” he said last year.

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READ: Ship with Sh1bn heroin haul blown up off Kenyan Coast

On April 25, 2014 Australian Navy sailors patrolling the coast of Africa seized another haul weighing more than one tonne on a suspicious sailing boat.

The estimated the street value of that heroin haul was put at $290 million (over Sh20bn).

Crew from HMAS Darwin boarded the wooden boat east of Kenya and discovered 46 sacks of heroin hidden among bags of cement.

The Navy said the drugs from the dhow were taken aboard HMAS Darwin.

President Kenyatta has vowed to enhance the war against drug trafficking where Mombasa is worst hit among other major towns in the country.

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