Cocaine Exporter Gets Ten Years

A 35-YEAR-OLD man who attempted to export 72 parcels of cocaine from Ghana to Italy has been busted by officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) at the Kotoka International Airport and sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Before the sentence, Raymond Bang-Nabu, counsel for Nelson Gyekye Yeboah, the accused, pleading for mitigation of sentence, told the court presided over by Justice Frank Manu that his client was a father who had been on remand for two years now so the court should give him the minimum sentence for the crime.

The court granted his plea and therefore sentenced him to a minimum of 10 years imprisonment with effect from August 13, 2005.

Nelson Yeboah, the accused who is a Ghanaian domiciled in Italy for 5 years, was arrested in August 2005 when he arrived at the Kotoka International Airport to board an Alitalia flight to Italy.

According to Augustine Obour, the State Attorney, the accused, while going through pre-boarding formalities, was invited by NACOB officials on suspicion that he had foreign materials in his body due to his strange movements and demeanour.

The accused was then sent to the 37 Military Hospital for an X-Ray examination where he confessed to swallowing 72 pellets of cocaine.

He was therefore placed under observation by NACOB officials for three days after which he expelled 72 pellets of a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine, a narcotic drug.

The accused was later handed to the police and in his caution statement, claimed the substance was given to him by one Yaw Boateng in an uncompleted building at Pokuase, to be delivered to one Prince Boateng.

However, he failed to assist the police in locating the said owner.
After investigations, he was charged with the offence of possessing narcotic drug and arraigned.

Initially, he had pleaded not guilty to the charge, but later changed his plea to guilty.