4 Arrested in Ghana for possessing heroin worth over $ 1 million

Ghana’s Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) officials have arrested four members of a drug trafficking ring operating between East and West Africa at the Kotoka International Airport in the capital, Accra for possessing 13Kg of heroin. The suspects were said to have been arrested in two separate operations earlier this week, leading to the seizure of the drugs which have a street value of over $1 million. In the first operation, officials discovered ten parcel of the drugs in an enamel bowl tightly concealed belonging to Mabada Zanaka Zamzam, a Ugandan woman who had arrived from Uganda with Ethiopian Airlines from Uganda. 

Ms Zamzam was said to have been timed to be picked at the airport by two men-Friday Ogbonna Icheogu and Christian Chukwudi Icheogu both Nigerians. But unknown to her, the Ghanaian officials had received intelligence from their Ugandan counterparts in Uganda over her movement. And when she arrived, she was met by the two Nigerians who were waiting to receive her at the arrival hall but they were quickly arrested by security officials. In the second arrest, Charles Ejiku Gasper arrived onboard another Ethiopian Airline flight from the Ugandan capital, Kampala through the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. During arrival security checks, security officials found seven large parcels of heroin, with an approximate weight of 10Kg being concealed beneath a bag used to carry babies (baby pram).

Gasper upon realizing he was on red alert attempted to escape but security officials quickly arrested him at the exit point of the airport and confirmed that the tag behind his passport marched the one on the baby pram. Upon interrogation, Gasper claimed the items had been given to him in Uganda by a Nigerian whose name he only gave as Obi to be delivered to an unknown person in Accra. The four suspects are currently in custody and will be put before court soon, according to security officials. In January this year, Ghana’s President, John Mahama dissolved the Narcotic Control Board over suspicious of security officials aiding drug syndicates to escape security checks. This has put security officials on high alert to prove the President wrong. Security experts have said in the recent past that about eight to thirty per cent of illicit drugs entering Europe pass through Ghana’s airport. The situation they say is like to push the country into a state of rejection in the international community on the fight against the drugs trade by cartels who are gradually using Ghana as a hub.