Cocaine in Ghana: lawyer Kofi Bentil fears a failed state
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on 3News
Kofi Bentil says traffickers still use Ghana as a transit point for cocaine despite port and airport controls. Franklin Cudjoe, founding president of IMANI Africa, calls for a parliamentary inquiry, and Kwasi Prempeh of the Centre for Democratic Development urges President Mahama to hold the appointees in charge of port security to account, reports 3News.
Spanish authorities seized 2.6 tonnes of cocaine hidden in two containers of coconuts loaded at the port of Tema, Ghana, reports 3News.
The containers left Tema on 2 August and arrived in Valencia twenty days later. Spanish customs officers and the Guardia Civil inspected them because they matched a 'high-risk' profile for drug imports. False bottoms in the wooden crates concealed packets of white powder identified as cocaine. The consignments were then transported by refrigerated trucks to a warehouse in Almería, where two men, including the alleged importer, were arrested.
Reactions are mounting in Ghana. Franklin Cudjoe, founding president of IMANI Africa, describes the case as a national disaster and calls for an independent parliamentary inquiry as well as the immediate sanction of those responsible at the highest level. Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, executive director of the Centre for Democratic Development, asks President John Dramani Mahama to hold the appointees in charge of port security accountable.
Another case involves 13,876 kg of cocaine linked to Ghana seized abroad. In an earlier case, 40 kg of alleged cocaine from Ghana had been seized in Lebanon.
