Mr Chukwudi Okechukwu was jailed along with compatriot Paul Ikechukwu, South African Stan Hycent and Pakistani Shoaib Mohammad Ayazi over the same offence. High Court Judge Amir Mruma has also ordered the accused to pay Sh9 billion in fines.
Anti-narcotics police believe that the preacher is one of the top members of a drug syndicate operating in Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa.
He and his three accomplices were hiding in a mansion in Dar es Salaam’s Kuduchi Mtongani suburbs when the police 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.
A surveillance team was deployed to keep an eye on the mansion that the the preacher and his accomplices had rented.
Led by head of Anti-Drugs Unit (ADU) Godfrey Nzowa, the police knocked on the front gate in their bid to arrest the suspected drug dealers.
Their arrest was dramatic. Soon after the police knocked on the gate and introduced themselves, the four suspects started running around the house in apparent fear and panic.
There was a 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.
Pastor Okechukwu was the only suspect who managed to jump over the wall but was arrested after a dramatic chase by the police.
Upon searching the house, anti-drugs police seized 81 packets of drugs which were later confirmed by the chief government chemist to be cocaine hydrochloride.
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