Cocaine busted in toffees

Four persons were on Tuesday evening arrested over the landing at the Tema Port of 61 parcels of a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine, hidden in packets of toffees and chewing gum.

This is the largest single haul since the assumption of power by President John Evans Atta Mills.

The arrest was effected by a combined team of personnel from Ghana Ports Authority, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), National Security Organisation and Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) tagged Joint Port Control Unit.

One of the suspects, a certain Faustina Agbo, is said to be the owner of the 40-footer container in which the 71.4 kilogramme stuff was concealed.

The other suspects currently in custody are Kennedy Osei, Simon Sarfo and Fafa Dedy, all clearing agents at the port.

The suspected cocaine was packed in two separate sacks before being dropped in the huge quantity of candy.

The container arrived at the Tema Port on board a Maersk Line vessel with registration number 0118160 from Ecuador on May 12, 2009.

The detection was made possible through a scanner at the port after a truck with registration number GR 9241 A went through the process.

The arrests come a few days after claims that the illicit narcotic business has somewhat abated in the country, amidst chest thumbing.

Some persons even sought to create the impression that Ghana has become unattractive to drug barons and therefore the United States President Barack Obama was visiting Ghana due to this.

The Interior Minister, Hon Cletus Avorka, was quoted as saying days before the arrests that the firm commitment of the Atta Mills Administration accounted for the seeming shortage of drugs in the country.

The Head of NACOB, ACP Robert Ayalingo also supported his boss, claiming that his investigations revealed most of the barons had relocated to neighboring countries.

Speaking more like a politician, when asked about specifics, ACP Ayalingo did not have facts to back his claims.

The 61 parcels were concealed in a consignment of chewing gum arriving at the port from the Central American country of Ecuador.

NACOB sources told DAILY GUIDE that the drugs contained in a 40-foot container arrived in the country a few days earlier.

Two staffers of a leading clearing agency at the Tema Port, SECO Agency, are some of those arrested over the illicit drugs at the port.

Two others, DAILY GUIDE learnt, were picked up at Amasaman near Accra and Dansoman.

NACOB boss, ACP Robert Ayalingo confirmed the arrest late Tuesday evening but declined to give details at the time.

The importer of the mainly chewing gum container could not be reached by DAILY GUIDE as her mobile phone was switched off.

The paper learnt at the time of going to press yesterday that Faustina is bent on disclosing the true owners of the stuff as she was singing to the Police like a canary.

She had claimed that she did not know how the illicit drugs came to be lodged in the container which arrived in the country on May 12 in the name of Faustina Agbo International Services Limited.

A destination inspection firm, Gateway Services Limited, had been alerted about the container. As soon as the truck carrying the stuff went through the scanner, they were immediately detected.

The past three months have seen only nine reports of cocaine arrests in the country, according to NACOB.

The arrests under review appear to have punctured the positions of those who think the illicit business has been somewhat wiped out of the country.

For now however, Ghanaians are eagerly awaiting the details which the importer of the 40-footer container has promised to release as she sings to the Police under interrogation.

By Charles Nixon & Razak Mardorgyz