Author: FAUSTINE KAPAMA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: A SENIOR police officer working with the Drug Control and Enforcement Authority (DCEA), Inspector Paschal Daudi, outlined in court how suspected drug baron Abdul Nsembo was arrested while hiding in the ceiling board of his house in Mbezi area in Dar es Salaam.
“We found Abdul Nsembo hiding in the ceiling board. He was wearing a boxer (underwear) when we caught him,”
He was addressing Judge Elinaza Luvanda, who is presiding over the economic trial at the Corruption and Economic Crime Division of the High Court.
He was giving evidence as the fourth prosecution witness in the trial of Nsembo, who is charged alongside his wife, Shamim Mwasha, with trafficking in 275.40 grammes of Heroin Hydrochloride, which are narcotic drugs on May 1, 2019 at Mbezi Beach area within Kinondoni District in the city.
Led by State Attorney Constantine Kakula, for the prosecution, the witness testified that on April 30, 2019 in the afternoon, he received information from his boss that there was work he was required to do at night and agreed to to meet at DCEA offices at around 8.00pm.
Upon his arrival, he testified, his boss told him about the exercise of conducting a search in the house of Abdul Nsembo, who was suspected of engaging in illegal drug trafficking.
According to him, he left the DCEA offices accompanied by other police officers at around 1.00am to Abdul’s home.
He explained that they arrived at the house at Mbezi Beach B at 1:45am and surrounded the house to strengthen security and ordered Assistant Police Inspector Brown and another police detective named Octatus to call a grassroots leader to witness the search.
Inspector Daudi testified that while waiting for the local leader to come to the house, they decided to knock on the door, but it was not opened, but instead, a security guard peeped through a small hole to inquire who they were.
“We introduced ourselves to him and gave him our identity cards. He asked us to wait so that he could report to the landlord who had the keys. While waiting for the door to be opened, Brown and Octatus returned accompanied by the local leader who identified himself as Jaffari Adinani,” he testified.
According to him, they remained outside for about 10 minutes and then the door was opened and upon entering they found a security guard with a woman identified by the name of Shamim Mwasha, the wife of Nsembo.
“We explained to her the intention of going there and asked if Abdul was inside. She replied he had been absent since he left in the morning and she didn’t know where he was and had no communication with him because they had a family dispute,” the witness said.
Inspector Daudi told the court that he asked her to allow them to start searching the house, but she wanted to be satisfied herself by first searching them, of which they complied with her request and upon being satisfied the exercise started.
He testified that the search began in the sitting room, all the way to the dining room, store and the entire basement but found nothing related to drugs and then moved upstairs.
“While upstairs we continued our search on the veranda lounge, but there was nothing; we moved to one room which seemed empty but we saw some dirt on the floor. Upon looking upwards we saw a piece of gypsum hanging with a mark of a human footprint,” the witness said.
According to him, when they asked Shamim to shed light on the issue, she claimed that some technicians went up there in the morning to make some repairs of water tanks.
Inspector Daudi told the court that the answers were suspicious and decided to satisfy themselves and Inspector Brown climbed into the ceiling board but saw no indication of the presence of anyone and they decided to continue searching the room of the couple.
“The situation of their room made us more suspicious as it seemed Abdul was inside and if not, then someone else was there but did not see the person. This is because the room had indications that two people had been lying on the bed not too long before then.
He testified that they decided to go back to the previous room and ask Shamim how to get to the water tanks.
Having become suspicious, Brown went to the ceiling board again with a bright torch, but all of a sadden they heard him say Abdul was up there and brought him down.
The witness explained that outside they saw a gate, which was closed and were told it was a car park and after being opened, they found a Land Rover Discover vehicle.
Having been inspected, he said, they found a white cloth bag attached to bright nylon with some flour at the back of the seat in a cover.
