Court remands four into NACOC’s custody for alleged cocaine smuggling  

An Accra circuit court has remanded four persons into the custody of the Narcotics Control Commission for alleged attempt to transport suspected cocaine at Kotoka International Airport’s Swissport cargo terminal.  

Gariba Soli, Josiah Biney, Emmanuel Minta, and Kwabena Ampofo Anti have also been charged with conspiracy to commit crime and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority. 

The Court presided over by Mrs Sedinam Awo Kwadam reminded them to reappear on May 6, 2025. 

Soli is an artifact dealer, operating from the Art Exhibition Centre in Accra while Biney, Minta, and Ampofo Anti are freight forwarders and employees of Ansahdys shipping and Logistics Company Limited located at the Avance Cargo Village at Kotoka International Airport. 

Facts available to the Ghana News Agency indicated On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, authorized officers stationed at the Export Section of the Swissport Cargo Terminal, during a routine physical examination of outbound cargoes destined for Brussels in Belgium, intercepted three packages made of wooden boxes on suspicion of concealing narcotic drugs.  

The intercepted boxes were en route to the Netherlands. 

It said an initial examination of the packages revealed assorted wooden artifacts with no incriminating items.  

However, when the boxes were emptied of their contents and scanned, the analyzed images indicated the presence of a false compartment in each box.  

These compartments were deconstructed and found to contain a total of 73 compressed slabs of suspected narcotics. When cut open, a sampled slab revealed a whitish powdery substance, which field-tested positive for cocaine, a narcotic drug. 

It said all four suspects were arrested on April 23, 2025, and taken to the NACOC Headquarters for investigation.  

It said during the preliminary investigation, all suspects denied knowledge of the concealed narcotics but during interrogation, suspect Soli, acting as the shipper of the intercepted packages, stated that he had been engaged by one Patrick to export the artifacts to the Netherlands on his behalf.  

He claimed to have been working with a representative of Patrick in Ghana, known only as Onik and Imex, since January 2025.  

He revealed that the three wooden boxes were delivered to him by Onik at the premises of the Art Exhibition Centre.  

Soli stated that he, together with his colleagues, loaded the empty boxes with assorted wooden artifacts, sealed them with nails, and dispatched them to Swissport on Sunday, April 14, 2025. 

He further stated that the packages remained with the agents (Ansahdys Shipping& Logistics) until he was called and invited to witness the examination of his cargo, where he was subsequently arrested. 

The drug exhibit will be forwarded to the Ghana Standards Authority for analytical examination and report.  

Source: GNA 

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