Four arrested for cocaine import

Accra, Aug. 11, GNA - Four people have been arrested by the security agencies in connection with the importation of 5.5 kilograms of cocaine.

They include a 34 year-old man, Sheik Kwame Abdullai, who was arrested by security agencies at the Kotoka International Airport for attempting to smuggle into the country a substance suspected to be heroine.

Security agencies told reporters on Tuesday that Kwame, who hails from Wiamoase-Beepoa in the Ashanti Region, arrived from Bangkok, Thailand, with 5.5 kilograms of a whitish substance concealed in his suitcase.

He told security agencies that the parcel was given to him in Bangkok by a Nigerian called Larry and it was to be collected by someone in Accra, who would pay him 3,000 dollars.

Kwame pleaded with the security agents to accept 5,000 dollars as bribe to set him free.

Shortly after this, Kwame's mobile phone rang and the arresting agents asked him to receive the call. He asked the caller to come over to the airport with 5,000 dollars "to sort things out". Subsequently, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and officials of the Narcotic Control Board set the stage and left Kwame alone under surveillance.

The caller, Henry Kanyi Foli, 33, who is a mason by profession and two others, came to the airport with the bribe of 5,000 dollars. Kanyi Foli gave the cash to Kwame, who passed on the whitish substance in polythene to him.

Kanyi Foli also handed over the polythene to an accomplice, Osei Bonsu alias Nana Osei, 32, who lives in Tantra Hills and runs a video library and a forex bureau.

In the process, the security agents apprehended them. The four suspects are under investigation and would be processed for court.