Busted drug baron slips back; arrived on Feb 13

Incarcerated boss of Sohin Security, Solomon Adelaquaye, who was jailed in the United States of America (USA) for heroin trafficking, is back in Ghana after serving his 24-month jail term.

He was jailed for only 24 months because he co-operated with investigators.

A reliable source at the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) told The Finder that Mr. Adelaquaye arrived from the USA on Friday, February 13, 2015 and was immediately whisked away by NACOB officials for debriefing.

Mr. Adelaquaye, who was allowed to go home after the debriefing, was made to report at NACOB every Monday.

According to the source, NACOB is continuing with investigations into Mr. Adelaquaye’s assets.

The source noted that at the right time, NACOB would apply to the court to confiscate Mr. Adelaquaye’s bank account, which has been frozen ever since he was arrested.

After his arrest, €1million (approximately Ghc2.6million) was found in Mr. Adelaquaye’s bank account and was subsequently frozen.

The source told The Finder that Sohin Security has virtually collapsed because most companies have terminated their contract with the company after the MD’s arrest.

Mr Adelaquaye, Managing Director of privately-owned Sohin Security Company, which was providing security in some parts of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), was arrested in May 2013 with two Nigerians and a Colombian following a joint US-Ghanaian investigation.

US agents disguised themselves as drug dealers, holding meetings with the accused over one year to buy thousands of dollars worth of Afghan heroin to distribute in Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City.

News of the arrests came barely hours after government ordered the airport's management to sever its dealings with the company.

Mr. Adelaquaye was charged with Colombian Samuel Antonia Pinedo-Rueda and Nigerians Frank Muodum and Celestine Ofor Orjinweke after an investigation of more than a year by Ghanaian and US anti-drug officers.

At a meeting on February 25, 2012 at Mr. Adelaquaye's office at the airport in Accra, a US agent, named as CS-3, said he had hidden 1kg of heroin in his laptop, the charge sheet said.

Mr. Adelaquaye then instructed CS-3 to give the computer to an associate of his, and after CS-3 passes through the security checkpoint at the airport, it would be returned to him.

Also at that meeting, CS-3 gave Adelaquaye $6,000 cash to guarantee the safe passage of the heroin through the airport.

US agents had also given Mr. Orjinweke $28,000 cash at a hotel in Accra on February 22, 2012 for supplying the heroin, and had later sent him a further $4,000 from New York.

It adds that at a separate meeting in Accra in May 2013, another US agent, posing as a Colombian dealer, discussed with Mr Adelaquaye, Mr Muodum and Mr Orjinweke a plan to supply them with 3,000kg of cocaine, valued at $25,000 per kilogram, in exchange for an amount of heroin of similar value.

Mr. Adelaquaye, Muodum, and Orjinweke told the agent named CS-2 that they could transport the heroin to the United States by airplane in multiple shipments of 25kg each.

Mr. Adelaquaye and the Nigerians were arrested in New York soon thereafter while Mr. Pinedo-Rueda was apprehended in Colombia.