Rumours making the rounds have it that one of the biggest drug dealers in all Sierra Leone allegedly accused of flooding and making popular the new drug craze, Kush, across the country, the man referred to as Biggie Tel/Ten of Moyiba (not far from PWD in the east of Freetown), is under arrest.
If our sources are correct, then his arrest is a feather in the cap of Sierra Leone’s Transnational Organised Crime Unit (TOCU), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Sierra Leone Police (SLP).
Nightwatch newspaper is reliably informed that the notorious Biggie Tel/Ten was long under the radar of dedicated drug-busters, men and women who are committed to ridding Sierra Leone of the many narcotic drugs that are being sold here. However, despite him allegedly openly importing, selling and distributing Kush and marijuana across the country, Biggie is alleged to be under the protection of very powerful people in the Sierra Leone Police brass, including the IG of Police, Dr Ambrose Sovula, making it much difficult to keep him locked up despite several other arrests. It is being alleged that the young man is popular for sending large sums of money to George Street and other police stations across the city on a regular basis.
But would this arrest hold? Will Biggie Tel/Ten or any other known and arrested drug dealer ever get their day in court besides Junior Fofanah?
According to our sources, that depends on the IG of Police. Responsible for bringing criminal charges against anyone at the magisterial level, Sierra Leone’s IG’s of Police enjoy vast powers that affect the outcome of cases. Based on his or her prerogative, an arrested individual could either face the courts, or not. This power, our sources told us, makes all the difference in the prosecution of individuals long believed to be ‘problems to society’ that miraculously fail to face or dance to the tune of justice.
Word around town is that this Biggie Tel/Ten character alongside other well-known local and foreign drug dons had faced several arrests with stacks and stacks of drugs and money without ever getting his or their days in court, all under the alleged auspices of the IG of Police, Dr Sovula.
In our recently published seven part series ‘Battle of the drug dealers’, it was alleged by drug dealers and users that the IG of Police had not only freed notorious but arrested drug peddlers with large stash of drugs and money, but also allegedly facilitated their release and giving them info of pending drug raids or arrests.
“Interestingly, we were at Olorshohror in Murray Town when another drug dealer informed us that he had just received a personal call from the IG of Police that there would be well orchestrated raids of drug dens or cartels today. At all the cartels in Freetown yesterday drug dealers were off, out and about doing other things than sell drugs,” our sources informed us.
So, the questions become: ‘Who investigates the investigator? Who prosecutes the prosecutor?’ The whole world is watching Sierra Leone to see what would become of Biggie Tel/Ten and other drug dealers in Sierra Leone during the IG’s tenure. If action is not swiftly taken against arrested drug dealers, then the IG would fit the bill of the allegation that he is not only benefitting from the drugs trade, but also responsible for promoting drug use and abuse in Sierra Leone, which is sadly responsible for the wrecking of so many promising dreams, hopes and futures or lives.