Cocaine Saga at French Port at Dunkirk with 3.9 metric tons of cocaine, President Mahama Should Act Decidedly and Decisively

Preamble
‘Let us not Despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican (herein NPP) answer or the Democrat (herein NDC) answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past by continue to be blaming the past. Let us accept our own responsibility’, powerful speech borrowed from John F Kennedy. Core message is henceforth a Bipartisanship or nationalistic position for practical solutions matter more than political labels. The Buck or Responsibility Stops with the President to act decidedly and decisively.

So, should stop persons pushing the narrative that the likely contributing factor that might have impeded the effort of NACOC under a Resetting Agenda in September 2026 to prevent the smuggling of the cocaine out of Ghana to France was due to a change of the arrangements for the inspection of containers at the Port in 2018 by the previous Regime, which resulted in an alleged relegation or lowering of the performance or the operations of NACOC at the Tema Port to a mere Intelligence led operations.

The affected speakers need to listen to themselves and do positive thinking and will note that this explanation by NACOC is not acceptable under a Resetting Agenda in September 2026; the narrative suggests negligence on the part of NACOC under a Resetting Agenda. Just like the failure of Officials to see to the promotion of tourism with the restoration/maintenance of the iconic fountain (beautiful waterfall) at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle which was built by President Mahama in his first Regime.

So His Excellency President Mahama as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, hence the Risk Owner of Ghana please need to sit up, he should not only accept responsibility for the cocaine saga but must change the Board and key members of the Management especially the Head of NACOC to convince the whole World that the Reset Agenda is on course. Hence he is very serious with the Reset Agenda. The very hardworking Minister of Interior needs the support of all in dealing with the internal security matters. So we need to push and support the frontline operators to up their games.

Cocaine comes from South America Countries like Columbia, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador etc. Hence smuggling by sea to Ghana especially Takoradi Harbor, Fishing Ports, or simply along the Coast. It is extracted from the coca plant as the most stimulant of natural origin. It can be snorted by inhaling Cocaine powder through the nose or smoked through inhaling cocaine vapor into the lungs and absorbed into the bloodstream. Otherwise injected into the blood stream.

Cocaine War
General Combat; Governments and Security Agencies use combination of ways in the Cocaine war. These include tougher laws, judicial cooperation, seizure of assets, military patrols and combating / intelligence war, financial tracking to freeze cartel assets, tracking money laundering and cut of the access to banking system, and public health strategies to fight transnational drug cartels.

Intelligence War: There is always a dangerous cat-and-mouse dynamics between sophisticated Cocaine or Narcotic Drug Cartel and Port Security. So, the combating of Cocaine or Narcotic Drugs by Nations is normally, an Intelligence War between the Drug Cartels and Law Enforcement Agencies, in Ghana especially by Narcotic Control Commission (NACOC). It this Intelligence War that is normally described or depicted as a dangerous Cat and Mouse Game between them.

The law Enforcement Agency says Narcotic Control Commission (NACOC) as the Cat employs intelligence tactics (system) by monitoring and scenting the movements and scents of the Mouse, whilst the International Cartel with smuggling networks as the mouse constantly scouting for procedure gaps to dodge the Cat or human vulnerabilities at shipping hubs to dodge or compromise the Cat and slip their products through.

Intelligence anti-narcotic agencies like NACOC as Cats spend months quietly monitoring credit card trails, wiretaps, the conduct of persons at Ports/ along the Coast etc and checking suspicious movements containers, communications and waiting for the right time to spring a trap. With the Cartels as the mice constantly shift their tactics by hiding drug in everything from charcoal and plastic waste to food shipments or using complex networks of courier to stay one step ahead of the cat.

Intelligent Security workings like the tactical operations of the Cat is not static, it varies, involving cooperation between the security agencies and the public, patrolling, covert operations, use of special dogs, special scanners etc.

So, responses to likely massive breaches by the mice or the Cartel include constantly changing of tactics by rewriting rules from changing monitoring to direct cargo screening or using both to catch the mice before the containers ever leave the port. So the story that there was no NACOC staff at the Port should sound strange to any Student of Risk Management or a seasoned Security Operator, hence it suggests a very poor security work by NACOC.

Reset Agenda/Accountability
In the 2024 Presidential Election, Ghanaians voted for a Reset Agenda. Among others to include the requirements of Probity (Honesty. Consistency, Loyalty, Dependability etc) Transparency (Openness Sunshine etc), Accountability (Answerability, Responsibility, Liability etc) Inclusivity, Fairness etc as presented to the voters. These requirements imply a change of the past narrative through needs for Patriotism, Honesty, Discipline, Humility, to some extent well-informed persons hence a Positive Mindset Revolution.

So the explanation given to the whole World that the likely contributing factor that might have impeded the effort of NACOC to prevent the smuggling of the cocaine out of Ghana to France was due to the arrangement made in 2018 to lower the operations of NACOC at the Tema Port is not acceptable, it suggest negligence.

The narrative on the cocaine saga should be driven by intellect and not emotion. Hence the kwaku ananse story on the alleged changes at the Port in 2018 should not be repeated by reasonable persons say Hon MPs/members of the Intelligentsia Community and Seasoned Security Players. Since a competent security team hence the Board and Management of NACOC, immediately on taken over/from time to time or as and when necessary especially with the recent cocaine incidents/sagas before the France cocaine saga or matter on narcotic drugs were/are required by Risk Management System or Security System to review the Yearly Security Incidents for the last 5 to 10 years, with the view to reviewing the Policy and Standing Operations Procedures (SOP) and up their game to catch the mice.

This should be after a good conduct of a security survey (reconnaissance)/risk assessments or tactical Appreciation of their area of operations and rewrite or update the policy and operational orders and may be or tweak or change the equipment / brief frontline operators / boost their morale and call them to improve on their performances.

Dear President Mahama Do Something
Political groupings, may trade spin (opinion) and point fingers with the usual equalizations and thus derailing or abusing or harming the Resetting Agenda as being championed by His Excellency President Mahama to change the negative narratives to positive narratives. Through thinking positive, thinking big and acting diligently with integrity.

President John Kennedy, once said that let us not seek Republican answer or democrat answer but the right answer let us not seek to the blame for the past. Let us accept and own responsibility for the future. So President Mahama as the Risk Owner of Ghana must not only accept responsibility but must change the Board and Management to convince the whole World that the Reset Agenda is on course.

His Excellency President Mahama should not repeat the very grievous mistake by once again harming the Reset Agenda when he woefully failed to act swiftly and brutal by sacking the DCE, who was found collecting operating permit fees for Chafan Machines nicknamed as one leg used in mining in rivers.

This was a very unacceptable act or incident when one recalls that the indefatigable EPA Boss and her team in 2025 combated against the manufacturing, sales and use of Chafan machines at the same general area.

President Mahama is championing a commendable Reset Agenda, so the investigation on the one Leg (Chafan machine) incident was not necessary; the documentary evidence by JoyNews was enough for swift action. Otherwise the investigation should have been for identification/ confirmation of the culprits especially the DCE, since the buck stops with the DCE and not the explanation that it was an inherited local governance arrangement.