Unregistered small boats are enabling a sprawling criminal economy along East Africa's Swahili Coast (the Indian Ocean-facing shoreline stretching from Somalia to Mozambique), carrying drugs, weapons, and smuggled wildlife while also devastating the fishing communities that depend on coastal waters. In a landmark October 2025 operation, Kenya's navy intercepted the MV Mashallah — an unregistered dhow operating under the guise of a fishing vessel — some 340 nautical miles east of Lamu, seizing over one tonne of methamphetamine worth an estimated US$63 million and arresting six Iranian suspects; the bust, enabled by intelligence from regional and international partners including Interpol, highlighted how East African shores have shifted from mere transit points into destination markets for manufactured narcotics. Beyond drug trafficking, such vessels have been used to ferry weapons to the Somali militant group al-Shabaab, poach marine resources through destructive bottom trawling, and smuggle endangered wildlife, prompting experts to call for sustained regional coordination, stronger information-sharing between governments, and greater involvement of coastal communities to close the maritime governance gaps that allow these networks to operate with near impunity.