Mechanic in court…for possessing narcotic drug

A twenty-five-year–old mechanic, Osuman Umar, has been arraigned before the Fast Track Court (FTC) for illegally possessing substances suspected to be cocaine, after he was found to have swallowed twelve pellets of cocaine, a narcotic drug.

The accused person, a Ghanaian resident in Sweden, is facing two counts of possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority, and attempting to export narcotic drugs to Sweden without a license.

The accused person pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and the court, presided over by Justice Senyo Dzamefe, remanded him into custody to re-appear on November 25, 2009.

Umar was suspected of carrying a narcotic substance, when he was about to board a KLM flight at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), to Copenhagan via Amsterdam.

According to State Prosecutors at the Attorney General's Department, the accused person, after presenting himself for security checks, prior to departure at the KIA on October 19, this year, was suspected of carrying narcotic drugs, after being observed and profiled by two officers of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB).

Prosecutors told the court that based on suspicion, NACOB personnel took a sample of the accused person's urine for immediate testing, which proved positive for cocaine, adding that the suspect was sent to the 37 Military Hospital, where an X-ray examination revealed that he was carrying some foreign substances in his stomach.

The state prosecutor indicated that the accused person admitted swallowing the narcotic drug to the NACOB officials, and was therefore escorted to the offices of NACOB, where he expelled twelve pellets of cocaine.

The accused person was thereafter arrested, and the narcotic drug seized by NACOB for evidential purposes, the prosecutor told the court, adding that the suspect's Ghanaian passport, number H1819218 issued on February 17, 2006 with an expiry date of February 17, 2016, one cell phone, one Sony HDD camcorder, and a traveling bag containing the accused persons personal belongings, were also seized.

The court heard that the accused person, in his caution statement to the police, admitted that on October 16, 2009, he met a friend at a drug smoking spot between Nima, Maamobi and New Town, who sold him the substance for GH¢5,250.

The accused person also confessed swallowing the illegal substance in the evening of October 19, 2009 at Madina, before proceeding to KIA to embark on his journey, the prosecutor informed the court.

The substance was forwarded to the Ghana Standards Board on October 22, 2009 for examination, and NACOB is presently awaiting official confirmation of the narcotic drug.