Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Six Pakistan nationals alongside an Iranian will now be sentenced on March10 after they were found guilty of trafficking heroin worth over Sh1.3 billion into the country.

Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku said that the six Pakistanis and one Iranian national who were hired as crew members aboard Armin Darya failed to exonerate themselves and reveal the owner of the said drugs.

The Magistrate said the crew were privy of the narcotics aboard the ship christened Al-Noor but failed to tell the court who had sent them. The crew had told the court they were transporting white cement (gypsum) from Iran to Zanzibar.

“I find the crew member culpable. They can’t say they didn’t know of the said narcotics. The vessel’s GPS was off and the drugs were well concealed and they didn’t exonerate themselves by telling the court the ship’s owned and who sent them,” said Mutuku.

 The suspects namely Yousuf  Yaqoob, Mohamed Saleh, Yakoob Ibrahim, Saleem Muhammad, Bhatti Abdul Ghafour, Baksh Moula and Pak Abdolghaffer were found guilty of trafficking 377.2 kilograms of heroin valued at Sh1,131,672,000 in granule form.

They are also facing a charge of trafficking 33,200 litres of heroin which was mixed with diesel in the ships tanker, worth Sh189 million.

“Investigators have produced enough evidence to convict the accused crew members. I find the accused guilty of the charges and convict them under section 215 of the Criminal procedure code (CPC),” said Mutuku.

In their mitigation the suspects  told court that  we’re remorseful  and requested for leniency .