By Antynet Ford
Anti-Narcotic officers at Moi International Airport yesterday recovered 300 grams of heroin from a 24-year-old college student. Detectives acting on an intelligence report went to the student’s house in Mishomoroni, Kisauni sub-county where he was arrested.
Police report indicates the drug was found wrapped in a clear polythene bag. The brownish/whitish drug which has an estimated street value of Sh1.2 million was tested on-site, turning positive for heroin, police said.
The exhibit was secured pending further sampling at the government chemist, as the suspect awaits arraignment on Thursday. Cases of drug trafficking, possession, and consumption in Mombasa have been on the rise despite operations to tame them.
The area has been experiencing a rise in demand for narcotics which hurts the society. Dozens of traffickers have since been arrested and charged in the operation. Police are yet to net main drug lords as only mules are usually arrested. Police say traffickers now use roads as opposed to airports to carry out their business.
The most commonly trafficked narcotics from Tanzania and through Uganda is heroin. Cocaine is also trafficked from the two countries.
This comes in the backdrop of a recent National Drug Survey by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) indicating widespread abuse of prescription medication.
The report indicates that subscriptions for harm reduction clinics where methadone maintenance treatment is used to treat opioid dependence have increased especially in the coastal city of Mombasa.
In the report, the medications commonly abused were identified as codeine, dextromethorphan, noscapine, morphine, caffeine, ketamine, and palavering.
The government is now looking at measures to curb the proliferation and availability of the medications in the market
