A Syrian national has been arrested at the Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, following his arrival from Accra, Ghana, with approximately 40 kilograms of suspected cocaine concealed in two pieces of luggage.
The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), in a statement, confirmed the arrested which was effected on Saturday, October 31, 2026.
NACOC said the successful apprehension of the suspect resulted from a coordinated controlled delivery exercise, carried out through close operational cooperation between Ghanaian and Lebanese drug law enforcement authorities.
“The joint operation aimed to identify and apprehend targets at both ends of the supply chain while gathering vital intelligence to dismantle the broader transnational criminal syndicate behind the shipment,” the statement said.
It said the operation underscores Ghana and Lebanon’s collaborative commitment to disrupting international drug trafficking networks through cross-border intelligence-sharing.
The statement added that NACOC operations are ongoing to arrest the suspect’s accomplices in Ghana.
This is the fourth major arrest of persons suspected to be linked to drug trafficking syndicates, having arrived from Ghana to their various destinations.
The arrests have resulted in calls on government to take drastic measures to deal with the incidents, which have the potential to put passengers arriving from Ghana on the radar of other countries.
On September 20, 2026, a 52-year-old man was arrested at the OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa on suspicion of drug trafficking after arriving from Accra.
The South African national, who had arrived from Ghana, was arrested by the country’s law enforcement agents in an intelligence-led operation that resulted in the retrieval of substances suspected to be cocaine, with a local street value of R2 million, an equivalent of GH¢1,416,545.18.
In June this year, a British actress and an Australian couple were arrested and put before court for allegedly attempting to smuggle 320kg of methamphetamine into Australia from Ghana, with an estimated value of A$296 million ($208 million).
In July, French customs officers at the port of Dunkirk seized nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine, valued at more than US$260 million, concealed in a container of plastic waste that had departed Ghana.
All these incidents put together paint a negative picture of the country’s border and customs, as many are beginning to draw a link to insider complicity.
Responding to the previous two major drug busts in France and Australia, President John Mahama gave an inter-agency task force two weeks to draw up measures to halt the trafficking of narcotic drugs through Ghana’s borders.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak