Inside the Investigation: How Ghana Is Tracking the €225 Million Cocaine Trail and the Fugitive Still at Large ‎

As four Ghanaians face trial over a nearly four-tonne cocaine shipment intercepted in France, the investigation behind the case shows a familiar pattern: a network under surveillance for months, arrests inside the state's own institutions, and a chief suspect who remains beyond reach.

Long before the seizure
The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) said the three suspects it first arrested had been on its radar under surveillance for close to a year to two years before French customs found the cocaine at Dunkirk on September 10.

NACOC's public affairs director said the bust was intelligence-led rather than a lucky find, and that officers had been "sleeping out of their homes" during earlier, unrelated operations to track major suspects, illustrating the kind of sustained legwork the agency says goes into these cases.

Who has fled, and who hasn't
The alleged kingpin behind the network, Dutch fugitive Jos Leijdekkers, known as "Bolle Jos," remains at large.

He is believed by Dutch authorities to be hiding in Sierra Leone, which has denied harbouring him, and there is no extradition treaty between the Netherlands and Sierra Leone to compel his return.

The four Ghanaians allegedly connected to his network, unlike him, have not fled: they were arrested in Ghana and are before the courts, remanded until October 13.

NACOC said it is working with both domestic and international law enforcement partners, and with French prosecutors, to trace how the shipment left Ghana's ports and to identify others who may be allegedly involved.

Cracks inside state institutions
The most sensitive thread in the investigation concerns the state's own port security.

Ten people are in custody in total, including four officers of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), alongside six private Ghanaian citizens whose identities authorities are withholding to avoid alerting other targets. Six of the ten were denied bail by the Kwabenya Circuit Court.

Analysts have noted that the specific identities and institutional affiliations of some suspects have still not been fully disclosed, leaving the extent of official complicity unclear.

A pattern, not an isolated case
This is not Ghana's first brush with a network that later disappeared from view. Commentators have pointed to a 2005 case in which authorities eventually confronted questions about whether earlier "high-profile" cocaine seizures, once announced with fanfare, could still be accounted for.

A Member of Parliament separately queried in 2025 what became of drug consignments Mahama's government had earlier described as major busts, questions the government said it takes seriously.

NACOC has pushed back on suggestions that seized drugs disappear, and Ghana's ports have logged other large narcotics interceptions in 2026, including opioids trafficked from India through Tamale and a separate cocaine consignment hidden in sacks of gari at Tema.

What the investigation still needs to establish

How the cocaine entered the export container in Ghana, and whether anyone inside the ports facilitated it.

The full extent of Leijdekkers' network in Ghana, and whether other members remain free.

Whether the six unnamed private citizens in custody have direct links to the Dunkirk shipment or to separate cases.

Whether Ghana's extradition request, if any, will be pursued against Leijdekkers via Interpol channels, given Sierra Leone's denial and the absence of a treaty.

President Mahama's inter-agency task force is due to report within two weeks with recommendations to close the gaps the case has exposed. NACOC says its wider record, 217 arrests and 165 prosecutions from recent intelligence-led operations, shows sustained enforcement, even as questions persist about how deep the Dunkirk network runs.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,

International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. ( USIP)

[email protected]
+233555275880

Sources
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Diplomatic Times Online, "Ghana's Narcotics Commission arrest three in connection to France cocaine bust"

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Drug-Trafficking Map"
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