Tears as fake diplomats get 22yrs for trafficking cocaine

Dar es Salaam. Liberian and Guinean nationals who trafficked into the country 31 packets of cocaine concealed in a ‘diplomatic bag’ have been sentenced to 22 years in jail.

On Thursday, the High Court in Dar es Salaam also ordered Diaka Brama Kaba, 59, from Conacry Guinea and Aboubakar Ndjane, 57, from Monrovia, Liberia to pay Sh3.7 billion, which is three times the value of the drugs they were found to have been trafficking.

Lady Justice Winfrida Korosso said the prosecution had produced sufficient evidence to warrant the conviction of the accused.

Intelligence sources revealed that the Anti-Drugs Task Force started trailing the two and kept a watch on their movement as they prepared to travel with the contraband from Lima, Peru and arrested them at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in June 2010, shortly after they stepped off a South African Airways.

The foreigners masqueraded as diplomats on a delegation to the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal, with their two luggage bags marked ‘Diplomatic Bags, The Republic of Guinea Conarky No. 002,’ and an emblem worded ‘Travail Justice Solidarite’, to conceal the drugs.

Their journey started in Trinidad via Panama, Brazil and South Africa before landing in Tanzania.

Upon arrest, the suspects pleaded with the police not to open the luggage, insisting they were diplomats with a crucial package to be delivered to the ICTR in Arusha.

But inquiries by the police with the ICTR office in Arusha revealed the two had no connection with the international tribunal.

Anti-drugs police also found with the suspects two documents directing security officers at all the airports they passed through not to tamper with the “diplomatic” bags.

They had wrapped the high purity cocaine in plastic and smeared them with coffee to avoid detection by scanning machines and mislead sniffer dogs at JNIA.

A woman who was later identified to be Ndjane’s wife wept persistently inside the courtroom as the judge pronounced the sentence. Visibly shaken by the sentence, the accused requested the court to make available copies of the proceedings of the case so that they challenge the decision in the Court of Appeal. During mitigation, defence lawyer Hajra Mungula asked the court to be considerate the fact that the two have been in custody for the past seven years. Principal State Attorney Evetha Mushi in assistance of Senior State Attorney Veronica Matikila pushed for a severe punishment arguing that narcotics were inflicting harm on the nation.