A notorious drug dealer in the Bethlehem area of the Free State has been sentenced in the Bethlehem Magistrate’s Court for dealing in drugs and corruption.
Nigerian national Okwudili Augustine Nwabo, also known as CJ, 36, was found guilty of the charges brought against him.
The provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as Hawks), Lieutenant Colonel Zweli Mohobeleli said the charges related to two separate incidents.
“On January 8, 2019, a member of Bethlehem SAPS, who was reacting to information provided by concerned residents, visited a house on the busy De Villiers Street where he recovered sachets of CAT drug and cash upon searching CJ.
“On June 23, 2021, a member of the Bloemfontein Anti-Gang Unit (AGU), who was posted in Bethlehem, received information about a vehicle transporting drugs. He cornered the vehicle fitting the description at a filling station and confronted the driver. The accused offered him money to look the other way. CJ was immediately placed under arrest for corruption,” Mohobeleli said.
The court sentenced the drug dealer to seven years' imprisonment for drug trafficking, with two years suspended for five years.
On the count of corruption, CJ was sentenced to three years imprisonment. The two sentences will run separately resulting in an effective eight years imprisonment. In addition, the court declared him unfit to possess a firearm.
Head of the Hawks in the Free State, Major General Mokgadi Bokaba has welcomed the sentencing.
“CJ's sentencing will surely bring a sense of justice to the people of Bethlehem. Our appeal is that they [residents] exercise patience as they trust us with removing criminals from the streets of Bohlokong, one drug dealer at a time. Let us hold hands in reporting drug syndicates and thereby saving our youth from a lifestyle of drug dependency,” Bokaba said.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
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