The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has arrested a 43-year-old freight forwarder in Tema in connection with the 2.6-tonne cocaine shipment concealed in coconuts from Ghana and seized in Valencia, Spain.
According to a GhanaWeb report on Thursday, November 12, citing a source at NACOC, the suspect operates at Community 1 in Tema and was arrested at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 11.
He is being held at NACOC cells to assist with investigations, the report said.
Preliminary investigations reportedly indicate that an agent brought the shipment to the freight forwarding company and allegedly provided the information used to prepare the customs documents for the exporters.
Other individuals linked to the shipment are also being pursued.
NACOC has not issued an official statement on the arrest. The suspect has not been named or charged.
The arrest is the first publicly reported detention in Ghana linked to the cocaine seizure in Spain.
Ketu North MP Eric Edem Agbana had earlier said on TV3’s New Day programme on Thursday morning that suspects had been arrested in Ghana following collaboration between NACOC and Spanish investigators.
However, he cautioned that he was not speaking on behalf of the Commission, saying, “I don’t speak for NACOC.”
Spain’s Tax Agency and Civil Guard announced on Wednesday, November 11, that officers had seized 2,600 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed beneath false bottoms fitted into wooden crates containing coconuts inside two shipping containers.
The containers were loaded at the Port of Tema on August 2 and arrived in Valencia on August 22.
Spanish authorities said officers discovered the drugs during an inspection but did not make arrests at the port. They subsequently removed the narcotics and tracked the shipment to a warehouse in Viator, Almería, where two men were arrested as the consignment was being unloaded.
The two suspects were identified as the importer of the consignment and the supervisor of the offloading operation. Their identities have not been made public.
The latest seizure adds to a series of cocaine interceptions involving shipments traced to Ghana.
In September, French authorities seized nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine from a container shipped from Ghana at Dunkirk.
On October 31, authorities in Beirut, Lebanon, arrested a Syrian national carrying 46.7 kilogrammes of cocaine from Accra. The case raised questions about NACOC’s account of a controlled delivery.
The seizures have increased pressure on the government, with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) calling for the dismissal of the Interior Minister, the NACOC chief and the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) chief over the overseas drug interceptions.
However, Majority Leader James Agalga has said Parliament will not conduct an inquiry into the matter.
By:Rachael Djabakie