'This is not one man job' — Majority calls for stronger inter-agency cooperation to fight drug trafficking

The Majority in Parliament has urged security and law enforcement agencies to strengthen collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking and the networks behind the illicit trade in Ghana.

The caucus said the increasingly complex nature of narcotics trafficking required a coordinated approach involving agencies responsible for border control, intelligence, investigations, prosecution, port operations and the recovery of proceeds of crime.

Majority Leader James Agalga made the call at a press conference on Thursday, September 24, stressing that the fight against drug trafficking could not be effectively handled by individual institutions working in isolation.

He said closer cooperation among the relevant agencies would enable them to share intelligence, conduct joint operations and trace the activities and assets of individuals and groups involved in the narcotics trade.

“The Majority caucus urges all security and law enforcement agencies, particularly the Narcotics Control Commission, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ports and Harbour Authority, and others, to increase cooperation and practice one front to combat the emergence of drug networks in our country.

“This is no job for any single agency. The profiling and screening, investigation, prosecution and asset recovery are all critical elements in the chain and only when agencies are better coordinated, sharing intelligence and working together can Ghana really disrupt and dismantle networks that traffic narcotics.

“The Majority caucus calls for continued and concerted interagency cooperation as the bedrock of the nation’s struggle against the drug menace.”

The Majority maintained that a national response built around sustained inter-agency cooperation would be essential to identifying and dismantling organised narcotics networks operating across different parts of the drug trafficking chain.