Detectives drawn from the Transnational Organized Crime Unit arrested a nurse from Mbagathi Hospital during a sting operation on a drug syndicate.
According to a statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the detectives pounced on the nurse at Nasra estate in Nairobi.
On Wednesday, September 8, the sleuths stated they had recovered 60 pellets of heroin that they believed she was planning on ingesting before it was shipped to an unknown location.
During the raid, detectives ransacked her house and recovered her passport and two others that had different names which police believe belong to her accomplices.
"Upon further scrutiny, the sleuths managed to identify one of the passports as that of a drug trafficker, who has an ongoing case in court.
"Also recovered was a job identification card bearing the names of the mastermind which identified her as a nurse at Mbagathi hospital," the statement from the DCI added.
Sleuths ransacked her house and also found a weighing scale suspected to have been used in facilitating the packaging of the illegal drugs.
The officers based at the DCI offices in Kayole handed over the heroin pellets to the anti-narcotics experts based at the agency's headquarters, for forensic analysis.
The police unit revealed it ambushed the suspected drug trafficker after receiving a tip from an anonymous caller.
"We thank the caller who in fulfilling his patriotic duty, made the call to our officers who acted promptly and arrested the traffickers," the DCI stated.
Kenya became a reliable destination for smugglers due to the volatile security, corruption and lack of oversight.
In 2018, the Ministry of Health estimated 27,000 people were abusing heroin but the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a Geneva-based NGO, estimated that 55,000 people were injectors alone, pointing to a higher overall figure.
NACADA, in a report, stated that heroin was the second-most consumed drug in the country after Marijuana.
