Kenya arrests Tanzanian student with 5.4kg of heroine

Kenyan authorities are interrogating a Tanzanian lady student after intercepting 5.44 kilograms of heroine at the country's main airport.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said on Friday the 25-year- old lady was arrested on Wednesday evening during an ongoing surveillance and targeting operation aimed at curbing drug trafficking through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

KRA spokesman Kennedy Onyonyi said the suspect was picked from the transit area after the officers went through the passenger manifest for Sabena Airlines.

"The drug was concealed in the false 'top and bottom' of a Japan Express suitcase and was wrapped in black plastic paper to avoid detection at the screening machines," Onyonyi said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The East African nation has been restructuring the anti- narcotics police unit which has helped the country improve its capability to arrest drug peddlers using Kenya as a transit hub.

The authorities claimed to have made major gains since December 2010 following the arrest of several drug traffickers at the JKIA and along the Indian Ocean in Mombasa.