Kenya hands life sentences to seven foreigners in major heroin trafficking case
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan court has handed down life sentences to seven foreign nationals for their involvement in a large‑scale heroin trafficking operation that routed the drugs to the coastal city of Mombasa. The convicts — six Pakistanis and one Iranian — were found guilty of smuggling heroin valued at KSh 1.3 billion (approx. US $10 million) into Kenya.
The defendants were members of a ship’s crew aboard the vessel known as Amin Darya (also called Al Noor ), which authorities say was intercepted after transporting 377 kg of granular heroin, 33,200 litres of liquid heroin and 2,400 litres of diesel mixed with the drug.
Following a prolonged legal process that began with arrests in 2014, the case was brought to a magistrate’s court in Mombasa, where each convict was also fined KSh 3.9 billion.
The ruling underscores Kenya’s increasingly firm stance against international narcotics trafficking, particularly via its coastal routes. Authorities say the verdict is also intended as a deterrent to transnational criminal networks exploiting the Indian Ocean corridor. But the case has drawn controversy: the ship was destroyed during the operation, prompting defence attorneys to argue that some evidence was compromised. The court, however, ruled that the evidence gathered prior to the destruction was sufficient.