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Police in Vietnam have arrested a Kenyan woman after cocaine weighing 2.3kg was found hidden in her luggage upon her arrival at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh city.
The narcotics were valued at about Sh27 million in international market.
In Kenya, a kilo of cocaine fetches between Sh4 million and Sh5 million while in international market it can go as far as Sh12 million, police say.
According to Vietnamese media, the Kenyan identified as M.M.N., was detained for investigation after the airport’s baggage scanning staff discovered two bags of cocaine concealed in her suitcase on July 14.
The cocaine was hidden in the top and bottom parts of the suitcase.
The woman departed from Nairobi International Airport and got through two more international airports, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Doha in Qatar, before touching down at Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City, investigators said.
Local police said they are cooperating with relevant agencies to expand their probe into the transnational drug trafficking case.
According to the Vietnamese Penal Code, the illegal transport of narcotics is punishable by prison terms from two to 20 years, a life sentence, or the death penalty, depending on the severity of each violation.
Vietnam is a key trafficking hub around the Golden Triangle, an intersection of China, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar and the world’s second largest drug-producing region.
The country also has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, with those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grammes of heroin or cocaine, or more than 2.5 kilogrammes of methamphetamine, possibly facing the death penalty.
The country remains a convenient drug trafficking route for gangs due to its long border connection of 2,300km with the neighbouring countries.
Ho Chi Minh City is a particularly attractive transit point for smugglers because of its proximity to neighbouring Cambodia.
This is the latest such incident to happen affecting a Kenyan. Last month, a Kenyan woman was detained in India after her arrest for smuggling in 2.5 kilogrammes of cocaine that was concealed in whiskey bottles.
The woman was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, a customs official told local media.
The suspect was intercepted after her arrival from Kenya via Addis Ababa, officials said.
Custom officials said the 2.5 kilogrammes cocaine was concealed in three whiskey bottles and were recovered from a bag, belonging to a duty-free shop, carried by her.
In February, a passenger was arrested in India for trying to smuggle heroin.
The female passenger was arrested at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence said.
The passenger arrived in India from Harare via Nairobi on board a Kenya Airways flight, police were quoted by local media. Kenyan officials are investigating the source of the narcotics.
In 2019, the then European Union Ambassador to Kenya Simon Mordue said the Kenyan port of Mombasa accounted for 30 per cent of illegal heroin smuggled into the EU market.
Most of the heroine in the country originates from Afghanistan through the Indian Ocean while cocaine originates from South America. Kenyan security agencies seized the second-biggest haul of cocaine weighing 100 kilos and valued at Sh598 million in 2016 in Mombasa which was disguised as sugar.
The case was however later dismissed in court.