The seized charcoal containing meth
Four persons (names withheld) including a woman are in the custody of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) for their alleged involvement in the smuggling of 320kg methamphetamine worth $208m disguised as charcoal from Ghana to Australia.
According to sources at the Commission, the first suspect, who works at the Tema Harbour and facilitated the documentation of the consignment, was arrested last weekend after authorities launched an investigation into the incident.
The suspect then led NACOC officers to the other two suspects who were arrested in Kumasi and the fourth suspect who was arrested yesterday dawn in Accra.
All four are in custody assisting with investigations.
NACOC Deputy Director-General, Alexander Twum-Barimah, in a related event revealed that the Commission had destroyed a large quantity of seized narcotics and related products valued at more than GH¢37 million following the necessary legal and regulatory procedures.
“After independent verification by the Ghana Standards Authority and authorisation from the court, we destroyed 9.6 tonnes of cannabis, 46.89 kilograms of cocaine, 2,734 bottles of cannabis-laced drinks, and 130 boxes of hemp-related products,” Twum-Barimah said
This development comes on the backdrop of recent arrest of British Actress, Emaa Hessen and an Australian couple for allegedly attempting to smuggle 320kg of methamphetamine into Australia from Ghana, with an estimated value of A$296m ($208m).
The BBC reported last week that Emaa Hussen, 34, appeared in a Sydney court after she was charged with attempting to import a commercial quantity of methamphetamine into Australia. She faces up to life in prison if found guilty of the offence.
She is currently in lawful custody after she was earlier denied bail by the court. She is due to return to court in August this year.
Police allege Hussen, along with a couple from South Australia, tried to import meth hidden in bags of charcoal in shipping containers from Ghana.
According to the report, Australian police launched an investigation in April after border authorities detected anomalies in two shipping containers that had arrived at Sydney’s Port Botany from Ghana.
Authorities found a “white crystalised substance” after they X-rayed the contents of the containers, which were listed as bags of charcoal. Further testing confirmed it was meth.
Police removed the drugs from the shipment before it was delivered to a storage facility in Girraween in Sydney’s western suburbs, it said.
Police allege that Hussen went to the facility and supervised as several men unpacked the container.
They loaded several bags into a car before driving to a house in Blacktown, where police later arrested Hussen. Police also seized electronic devices and a notebook.
As part of the investigations, police also arrested and charged a woman, 30, and a man, 32, in the South Australian capital of Adelaide for allegedly using false identities to rent the storage units in Sydney where the drugs were delivered.
By Prince Fiifi Yorke