Cocaine Junction: Ghana's coke boom alerts US

THE US has cited Ghana as a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly cocaine from South America, as well as heroin from Southeast and Southwest Asia.

The US again says South American cocaine barons have increased their foothold in the country, establishing well-developed distribution networks run by Nigerian and Ghanaian criminals.

It said the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is increasingly becoming a focus for traffickers with the Tema, Sekondi, and Takoradi ports also becoming notorious for significant drug trafficking activities.

In the 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) released this week by the US State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, it said although Europe remains the major destination for traffickers, drugs from Ghana also flow to South Africa and North America.

"Ghana's interest in attracting investment provides good cover for foreign drug barons to enter the country under the guise of doing legitimate business", the report suggested.

However, South American traffickers reduced their need to visit Ghana in person by increasing reliance on local partners, thus further insulating themselves from possible arrest by local authorities, it stressed.

Again, it mentioned 2006 as year marked by a series of cocaine scandals, including allegations of police complicity in cocaine trafficking, citing the incidence where five kilograms of cocaine went missing from a police evidence locker.

"In the most prominent case, security agencies interdicted a ship, the MV Benjamin, thought to have been carrying as much as two tons of cocaine, of which authorities only seized thirty kg", INCSR noted.

According to the report, the scandal climaxed with the surfacing of a secret recording that caught ACP Kofi Boakye, then Director of Police Operations, and some known narcotics traffickers on tape discussing why they had not been alerted to the two ton cocaine shipment.

INCSR said drug trafficking has also fueled increasing domestic drug consumption with wee smoking among the leading used drugs, pointing out that this has led law enforcement officials repeatedly raising concerns that narcotics rings are growing in size, strength, organization and capacity for violence.

The report added that though Ghana has active enforcement, treatment, and rehabilitation programmes; corruption and a lack of resources remain a problem.

It maintained that the MV Benjamin cocaine scandal in 2006, involving allegations of official complicity in narcotics trafficking, has complicated Ghana's efforts to combat the drug trade, but has served to focus public attention on the growing problem.

It related that in 2006, for example, convictions in drug cases involving 100 grammes or more increased as the courts delivered 33 drug-related convictions in such cases, including four for arrests made during the year and 29 arrests in 2005 in addition to a number of citizens of Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Guinea, Belgium, and Germany in cases involving cocaine and heroin trafficking.

"Despite these positive trends, at year's end courts still had 96 cases pending that involved 100 grammes or more", it noted.

It said the prices of drugs also increased in 2006 than the previous year with "the price of a small parcel of cannabis (the size of a loaf of bread) in 2006 approximately ¢100,000-150,000 ($10.86 - $16.29), while a wrapper or joint sold for ¢2,000-5,000 ($0.22 - $0.54), from two to five times the price in 2005".

It revealed that US law enforcement agencies severed cooperation with the Narcotics Control Board and other local law enforcement agencies at the eruption of the 2006 cocaine scandals, stressing that this forced US agencies to reduce cooperation until the NCB could reconstitute itself.

The report blamed the backlog of cases, pending trials and the limited resources facing the judiciary as the main problem in controlling drug trafficking in the country.

"The court requirement of a surety in addition to bail is often either dropped, or court registrars will fraudulently use the identical property as surety for multiple cases", it insisted, hoping that with the change to the bail bond system in 2006, this would cease to be a problem.

It further mentioned corruption among law enforcement officials as a serious problem, saying that "an Assistant Commissioner of Police and five other officers were arrested for their alleged direct involvement in the trafficking of the cocaine, which went missing from the MV Benjamin". The INCSR said cannabis (also known as Indian hemp) is widely cultivated in rural farmlands in the Volta, Brong-Ahafo, Eastern, Western, and Ashanti regions.