NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 27 – The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has closed its case against six Iranian nationals charged with trafficking more than one tonne of methamphetamine worth Sh8.2 billion.

📻 Breaking It Down

The prosecution concluded its case before the Shanzu Chief Magistrate’s Court after presenting testimony from 12 witnesses in the high-profile international drug trafficking trial.

Investigating officer Inspector Shadrack Kemei told the court that the Anti-Narcotics Unit received intelligence on October 19, 2025, indicating that the Kenya Navy had launched an operation to intercept a suspicious vessel suspected of transporting narcotic drugs.

The following day, the Kenya Navy intercepted the vessel identified as Mashaallah, which was described as a “dark vessel” for allegedly operating without an Automatic Identification System (AIS).

📌 What You Need to Know

According to the prosecution, the vessel was escorted into Kenyan waters before detectives obtained search warrants from the Mombasa Law Courts authorizing officers to board, search, seize and detain the ship.

Inspector Kemei testified that investigators, alongside officers from the Kenya Navy and the Kenya Coast Guard Service, boarded the vessel at sea and served the warrant to the captain, Jaseem Darzadeh Nia.

Preliminary searches allegedly recovered two packets containing a white crystalline substance which field tests confirmed to be methamphetamine with an estimated purity of 98 percent.

Further searches conducted after the vessel docked at the Kenya Navy’s Mtongwe Jetty led to the recovery of 769 packets of methamphetamine concealed in six of the vessel’s seven compartments.

Authorities told the court the recovered narcotics weighed 1,036.044 kilograms with an estimated street value of KSh8,288,352,000.

The six accused persons were identified as Jaseem Darzadeh Nia, Nadeem Jadgal, Hassan Baloch, Raheem Baksh, Imran Baloch and Imtiyaz Daryay.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya