Detectives based at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) are holding a Nigerian man caught attempting to smuggle more than three kilograms of heroin to Italy.
Mr Ordijhe Mike, who was to travel to Italy via Qatar and France aboard a Kenya Airways flight, was stopped at the screening area.
A multi-agency team was assembled and after a thorough search, 3,059 grams of the substance were found in false pockets of the 45-year-old's suitcase.
Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti said officers from the Anti-Narcotics Unit carried out preliminary tests, which established the substance was heroin.
“The suspect was placed in custody and the heroin taken for further analysis,” Mr Kinoti said.
A report by the Global Initiative Against Organised Transnational Crime (GI-TOC) named Nairobi among the shadowy capitals of the heroin economy through its intertwined legal and illicit trade.
The report dubbed "From Maskani to the Mayor: The political economy of heroin markets in East and Southern Africa" was released in March.
It revealed that the heroin economy has shaped the growth of small coastal villages, border towns and megacities along the southern route.
The route is used to move Afghan drugs across the Indian ocean and onward through Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique, to South Africa.
