A Tanzanian food vendor, who was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by officials of the Ghana Narcotics Control Board [NACOB], has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in Ghana.
The convict, Basaida Zena Jafary, was arrested with 2.3 kilograms of speedball – a mixture of cocaine and heroin – with street value of US$70,000.00.
The woman, according to NACOB, arrived in Ghana recently on board Rwanda Air flight number ET 200 and was nabbed at the airport during checks and when two parcels of a substance suspected to be narcotics, were found in her luggage.
According to a statement from the Communication and Media Relations Unit of NACOB, “A search conducted in her (convict) check-in luggage revealed a concealment of two parcels in false compartments of her luggage. The content of the parcel proved positive for narcotics substance during preliminary test conducted in her presence.”
It said the suspected narcotic substance was further forwarded to the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) for confirmation, which tested positive for narcotics weighing 2.3 kilograms.
The statement further indicated that upon interrogation, the convict admitted ownership of the parcels, and claimed that they were given to her by one Mandanje Omari in Tanzania to be delivered to someone in Accra for an undisclosed amount of money.
She was thus, arraigned before the court. She pleaded guilty to the offence and was subsequently handed a 5-year jail term.
The statement therefore, admonished the public to “desist from delivering parcels on behalf of others, as it has been the conduit for trafficking narcotic drugs.”
 BY Gibril Abdul Razak