Kenya has declared that any vessel carrying the narcotics and firearms will be blown up. In August, a luxury yacht was blown up off the coast of Mombasa and last year, a cargo vessel.
GSU commandos took over Mombasa port on Thursday night from 10pm-to 6 am and searched a cargo vessel for narcotics and weapons. The GSU Squad secured the port and made it a no-go zone closing all entry and exit.
It is feared that al Shabaab terrorists had taken over the installation because police, port security were kicked out, some security guards were roughed up and handcuffed to ensure no information was leaked. Only yesterday the operations were back to normal but security remained tight.
On the basis of information from the US government to Kenyan security about the vessel carrying drugs and firearms, Berth 13 near Gate 10 was sealed off. The inter-agency detectives searched the Singapore-registered vehicle carrier. It was officially carrying 3,983 vehicles, including cars from Dubai and Japan and United Nations’ trucks for Uganda. The search started at 9 am and by noon about 40 percent of the vessel had been scoured, but there was no information about drugs or firearms. The vessel was being monitored by the Interpol and the FBI for more than a week since it left Mumbai, bound for Mombasa.
The operation started as soon as the vessel docked with its Filipino crew. The ship was swarmed by the multi-agency team including the Kenya Defence Forces, GSU, Anti-Narcotics Unit, the National Intelligence Service and Interpol Local security officers were kept in the dark about the highly sensitive operation. The cargo will be subjected to 100 percent verification.
The three persons who wore masks and armed with sophisticated weapons were arrested.
Source: The Star
