Pastor Of A Popular Church Jailed 30 Years In Tanzania For Smuggling Cocaine

A Lord's Chosen pastor in Tanzania, Chukwudi Okechukwu, has reportedly bagged a 30-year jail term after being convicted of smuggling cocaine worth Sh3.1 billion. Anti-narcotics police allegedly believe Okechukwu is one of the top members of a drug syndicate operating in Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa. He was jailed alongside a South African, one Stan Hycent and Pakistani Shoaib Mohammad Ayazi over the same offence. High Court Judge, Amir Mruma, reports say has ordered the accused to pay Sh9 billion in fines. He and his three accomplices were reportedly hiding in a mansion in Dar es Salaam’s Kuduchi Mtongani suburbs when the police allegedly surrounded the house and arrested them.

Anti-narcotics police had received information about foreigners who were planning to smuggle into the country a huge quantity of cocaine and store it in a house in Kunduchi Mtongani. However, a surveillance team led by head of Anti-Drugs Unit, ADU, Godfrey Nzowa, was deployed to keep an eye on the mansion that the preacher and his accomplices had rented. The team had purportedly knocked on the front gate in their bid to arrest the suspected drug dealers.

Soon after the police knocked on the gate and introduced themselves, reports further revealed that the four suspects started running around the house in apparent fear and panic. There was an alleged cat-and-mouse chase drama inside the compound as the police tried to get hold of one of the suspects as he was attempting to jump over the fence. Three suspects were arrested inside the house.

The Nigerian suspect was reportedly the only one who managed to jump over the wall but was arrested after a chase by the police. Upon searching the house, anti-drugs police allegedly seized 81 packets of drugs which were later confirmed by a Chief Government chemist to be cocaine hydrochloride.

However, intelligence report revealed he visited Tanzania some years back and had made a name for himself as a pastor at his ‘Kinondoni Biafra’ church and won many followers.

The head of Anti-Drugs Unit, Nzowa, reportedly described their jailing as ‘another great achievement’ in Tanzania’s efforts to fight drug trafficking.