Drug dealer in hot soup after being caught with 102.33 kilograms of cannabis in Rufiji

BY FAUSTINE KAPAMA-Judiciary 

THE High Court’s Corruption and Economic Crime Division has sentenced drug dealer,Mr. Mohamed Likulo to 25 years jail term for trafficking in narcotic drugs namely cannabis sativa weighing 102.33 kilograms. 

The building housing the Corruption and Economic Crime Division of High Court.

Judge Elinaza Luvanda gave such custodian sentence against the accused person after convicting him of the offence he was charged with by the prosecution. He ruled that the prosecution sufficiently proved the economic case against the accused after producing sufficient evidence. 

“Therefore the accused is found guilty and is convicted for the offence of trafficking in narcotic drugs contrary to section 15(1)(a) and (3)(iii) of the Drugs Control and Enforcement Act read together with paragraph 23 of the First Schedule to, and sections 57(1) and 60(2) of the Economic and Organized Crime Control Act,” he declared. 

Judge Luvanda pointed out that the Tanzania Sentencing Manual for Judicial Officers stipulated the minimum and maximum sentence for the offence to be 20 years minimum and 30 years maximum, but given that the accused was a first offender, he sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment only. 

He noted that to a large extent the accused aligned his defence along the same facts adduced by the arresting or seizing officer save for a slight departure, meaning that at the end of the trial, parties were in substantial agreement on most things or facts which were pertinent to the facts in issue. 

Court hammer.

According to him, in his defence the accused person did not deny a fact that he is living at Nyamwage, a place where the offence is alleged to have been committed and acceded to a fact that on the material fateful date of incident in the evening time, he was spraying pesticide on his farm at Nyamwage. 

Judge Luvanda further observed that the accused person did not counter a fact that while on farming activities, he was summoned by her daughter accompanied by one of the arresting officers who escorted him up to his home. 

The judge went on noting that the accused did not refute a fact that a search was conducted at his house in the presence of a hamlet chairman for Eastern Hamlet. 

More so, he said, there was no rebuttal to a fact that in the course of that search, two sacks (polysack bags) containing leaves suspected to be cannabis sativa and a motorcycle Fekon brand were impounded at the rear of the accused's house. 

“The accused did not oppose a fact that after search, a certificate of seizure was recorded at the scene where he appended a signature,” the judge said. 

However, the accused person dispelled accusation for involvement in trafficking narcotic drugs and disowned those two polysack bags containing cannabis sativa and the motorcycle on explanation that he is not used to visit his house at the rear where those items were found. 

Nevertheless, on cross examination he was honest that his daughter did not tell him that someone had visited at his home and left a motor cycle with sacks, neither her daughter told her that the arresting officers had come with a motor cycle which had carried sacks. 

“In view of that and so far the accused person had appended a thumb print in a certificate of seizure form, committing himself to a fact that (cannabis sativa) and (motorcycle) were seized at his house, he cannot be heard afterward disowning those seized items,” the judge said. 

On February 9, 2019 at Nyamwage Village within Rufiji District in Coast Region, the accused person was found trafficking in narcotic drugs namely cannabis sativa weighing 102.33 kilograms. The accused person had denied the information.