Lord's Chosen Pastor Arrested in Tanzania For Smuggling Cocaine (Photo)

 

A Nigerian pastor, one Mr Chukwudi Okechukwu, who preaches in Tanzania, under the umbrella of the Lord Chosen Church of Nigeria, has reportedly bagged a 30-year jail term after being convicted of smuggling cocaine worth Sh3.1 billion.

According to DailyPost reports, Okechukwu, who anti-narcotics police allegedly believe is one of the top members of a drug syndicate operating in Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa, 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. Security operatives surrounded the house and later arrested the four suspects after a protracted drama which saw the Nigerian suspect jumping over the fence of the house and absconding before he was finally arrested after a hot chase.

 

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.

 

Source: DailyPost