Kenyan Woman Busted With Ksh349M Cocaine Flown Through 3 Airports

Police officers at Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Police Department in Vietnam on Monday, July 17 arrested a Kenyan woman who was carrying 2.3 kilograms of cocaine in her suitcase across three airports, including Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, undetected.

The arrest, according to Vietnamese news reports, occurred after officers from the Ministry of Public Security, Ho Chi Minh City’s Police Department, border guards, and customs officials inspected the 35-year-old woman's luggage after she landed at Tan Son Nhat airport in the city.

The woman managed to travel from JKIA to Bole International in Ethiopia and took a connecting flight to Hamad International Airport in Qatar, all while managing to dodge water-tight security, especially at Hamad which is considered to have one of the world's toughest security policies.

However, her luck was cut short at Tan Son Nhat in HCMC where security officials discovered abnormalities in terms of the structure of her suitcase.

The officials who inspected the suitcase found that it was modified in such a manner that it had a second bottom, where she was believed to have stuffed the cocaine with the hope that officials wouldn't catch her red-handed.

Inside, they found two bags of cocaine with an approximate street value of Ksh349 million.

Police expanded investigations as questions emerged on how the woman managed to outsmart security in the three airports by beating the usual hawk eyes of the officials.

By including a secret compartment in her suitcase, the woman masked peculiar signs inside her suitcase which allowed her to slip past the international gateways unnoticed, a seeming middle finger to modernised airport security systems.

Vietnam is a key trafficking hub for narcotics around the Golden Triangle, an intersection of China, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar and the world's second-largest drug-producing region.

The country remains a convenient drug trafficking route for gangs due to its long border connection of 2,300 km with the neighbouring countries.

Furthermore, Ho Chi Minh City is viewed as an attractive transit point for smugglers because of its proximity to neighbouring Cambodia.

The country also has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, with those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine, or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine, possibly facing the death penalty.

Image of a cocaine drug being abused. /SHUTTERSTOCK