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Woman arrested with cocaine worth Sh100million in Mombasa


A woman is being held by detective in Mombasa County after she was found in possession of a consignment of cocaine worth Sh100 million in what is the biggest recovery of narcotics in the country in recent years.

The arrest was made after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Transnational Organized Crimes and Anti-Narcotics unit acted on a tip-off that led them to a house where 29-year-old Nuru Murshid Mahfud was found in possession of the consignment packed in 35 sachets inside a suitcase.

The woman is believed to be a mule with the detectives yet to establish whether the consignment was meant for local consumption or it was to be trafficked to foreign destinations.

“The suspect has been detained at a police station in the coastal city as the undercover agents hunt for her accomplices,” the DCI said in a statement.

Police said samples of the seized narcotics had been sent to experts at the Chemistry and Toxicology units based at the DCI National Forensic Laboratory, for more tests.

The coastal region is infamous for illicit drug business. In 2019, a multi-agency team in Mombasa launched a manhunt for a woman who was linked to two suspected drug traffickers who were arrested with 2.9 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil worth Sh11 million.

The woman identified as Nassim Athman Mohammed was said to be holding a German passport. According to police reports, the suspect was involved in trafficking cocaine from Brazil to Mombasa.

That year alone, more than a dozen women were arrested with drugs worth millions of shillings in Mombasa.

The Kenyan port of Mombasa accounted for 30 per cent of illegal heroin smuggled into the EU market with most of the heroin in the country originating from Afghanistan through the Indian Ocean while cocaine originates from South America.