Police Personnel Study Drug Trafficking

ACP Maame Yaa Tiwaa, Madam Jane Osei – Pokuaa, in a group photograph with participants

A one week training programme on basic drug trafficking investigations has been organized for 25 police personnel from the narcotics unit of the police headquarters by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Accra.

The personnel, as part of the training, will also be taken through a field tester course and investigation best practices.

The programme, according to the ACP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo –Dankwah, Deputy Director General in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) will help improve the police personnel's professional competences and skills in fighting organized crime and drug trafficking.

At the opening ceremony held in Accra, ACP Tiwaa Addo Dankwah said West Africa has become an attractive destination for transnational organized crimes.

“Cartels have collaborated with local partners to turn the sub-region into a transit route to Europe and North America for illicit drugs.”

“The drug trade in the sub-region is currently valued at hundreds of million dollars and during the United Nation's Security Council debate on drug trafficking, the United Nations Secretary General estimated the yearly value of cocaine transiting through West Africa as 1.25 billon US dollars.”

She said drug trafficking posed a major threat to human security, good governance, peace and sustainable development of the sub-region.

“The increasing sophisticated operations of organized drug traffickers, porous borders, weak institutions, corruption, poverty coupled with capacity and logistical deficit of law enforcement agencies within the sub-region, have made the fight against drug trafficking an overwhelming task.”

The CID deputy director general declared that, her department has and will continue to demonstrate its commitment and determination to make these crimes very risky and unprofitable for the perpetrators.

Madam Jane Osei – Pokuaa, the national projects officer of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in an address said UNODC in partnership with the Ghana Police Service will implement a two year project titled, “ Technical Assistance to Ghanaian authorities to counter drug trafficking and organized crime”

“There will be further 16 training activities during the course of the year in four regions namely Brong Ahafo, Northern Region, Eastern Region and the Volta Region and the training activities will be training the trainers' course,  field tester certification course, methamphetamine workshop, drug crime legal seminar, trial skills seminar and others.”

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By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey