Five persons who were arrested at the Kotoka International Airport in 2019 for importing 2,200 grams of cocaine into the country, have been sentenced to a total of 60 years by a High Court in Accra.
While Frank Asante, Alhassan Iddrisu, Clifford Boakye and Isaac Kwakye are to each serve 10 years in hard labour, Kweku Antwi, who jumped bail is to serve a 20-year jail term.
The five were charged with conspiracy, possession and importation of narcotics drugs into Ghana, to which they all pleaded not guilty.
But the court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, found the five guilty of the offences and sentenced them accordingly.
Justice Osei Marfo, in sentencing the convicts resorted to the old law – (PNDC Law 236) under which they were charged, and imposed 10 years as the minimum instead of the new law (Act 1019) which also has 10 years as minimum but adds hefty fines.
She said, the court was minded about the constitutional provisions under Article 19(6) of the Constitution and she could not impose punishment stipulated under the new law.
Justice Marfo took into consideration the conduct of the convicts throughout the trial and how they barely missed any sitting except on occasions when they had genuine reasons and they informed the court.
Same could not be said about Kweku Antwi who jumped bail and was not attending the trial.
Justice Marfo sentenced the convicts to 10 years each to run concurrently but Kweku Antwi’s sentences are to run consecutively, which means he will serve 20 years in prison when he was found and rearrested.
The prosecution’s facts at the beginning of the trial indicated that information gathered by the Intelligence Unit of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) indicated that the convicts had been importing and dealing in narcotic substances from Brazil and other countries.
It said surveillance was mounted on their travels and in May 2019, the team observed Frank Asante arrive from Brazil to Ghana and he was met at the Airport by Alhassan Iddrisu, Clifford Aboagye and Isaac Kiakye.
It said, they all drove off to a spot at Achimota Mile 7, where Frank Asante was seen handing over a backpack from his traveling bag to Alhassan Iddrisu.
The Facts stated that, on July 13, 2019, Frank Asante and Kweku Antwi arrived on an Ethiopian Airline from Brazil to Ghana, indicating that Antwi had been engaged by Asante to carry narcotic drugs from Brazil to Ghana at a fee and they both carried their respective travelling bags tagged in their respective names.
It added that, in the course of the arrival formalities, two black backpacks suspected to contain narcotic drugs were seen in the traveling bags of Antwi.
It stated, that after going through disembarkation formalities, Iddrisu was observed pushing a trolley with the travelling luggage of the 1st accused.
The three were later joined by the other two convicts and all the travelling bags were loaded into a vehicle driven by Iddrisu.
Boakye and Anokye boarded a separate vehicle and all the five accused convicts were arrested before they could leave the Kotoka International Airport and were taken to NACOB headquarters for further investigations.
“The two black backpacks retrieved from the travelling bags of the Antwi were cut open in the presence of all the convicts and whitish substances wrapped in foil were discovered in a false compartment of each of the backpacks.
The substances were sent to the Ghana Standards Authorities for testing and they tested positive for cocaine with 82.5 percentage purity and a net weight of 2,200 grams.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
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