Ship arrest spotlights drugs route

Kenyan police are questioning the Iranian captain and nine Pakistani and Indian crew.

Ship arrest spotlights Indian Ocean drugs route

Stephen Spark

Kenyan police are questioning the Iranian captain and nine Pakistani and Indian crew members from general cargo ship Amin Darya who were arrested last week on suspicion of drugs smuggling.

The Kenyan Navy arrested the ship off Lamu on Wednesday. It was brought to the Mtongwe military base within Mombasa port, where the bagged cargo of cement was unloaded and the ship searched using sniffer dogs.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Mombasa Acting Police Commander Sevelino Kubai said that the crew claimed the ship was carrying 300 tonnes of cement.

Kubai said that the vessel was one of two that had sailed from Pakistan and called in to Mogadishu, Somalia, apparently en route for Zanzibar.

Paperwork found on board stated that the cargo had been loaded in Mombasa. Early reports suggested the ship was called Al Noor (or Alnoor), but the vessel is now accepted to be the Amin Darya (IMO 8630784), homeported in Bandar Bushehr, Iran.

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Source: ihsmaritime360.com