Ghana Plantain stuffed with cocaine seized in UK

First it was the biggest cannabis haul seizure at the UK Heathrow airport but British officials today September 28, 2012 say they have intercepted another drug consignment smuggled from Ghana.

The UK Border Force says it has seized a consignment of cocaine weighing about 7.5 kilos. The agency found the consignment Tuesday September 25, 2012 hidden inside plantains, within a larger freight consignment of fruit and vegetables from Ghana.

“The cocaine, which weighed about 7.5 kilos, was found on Tuesday September 25 hidden inside plantains, within a larger freight consignment of fruit and vegetables from Ghana,” the UK Home Office said in a statement September 28, 2012.

“The plantains had been hollowed out and the skins resealed in an attempt to conceal the powder inside,” the Home Office described.

The class A drugs could have had a potential value of approximately £750,000 if cut and sold on the street in the UK, according to British authorities.

It revealed that the “consignment had come on the same service from Accra”, but had arrived a day later than the cannabis.

Border Force officers at Heathrow are therefore linking the cocaine seizure at the airport to the massive haul of cannabis found the day before.

Marc Owen, Heathrow Director for Border Force, said “It seems likely that the same criminal gangs were involved in both of these two smuggling attempts. This means that in just two days we have put a £5million dent in their profits.”

“These two seizures demonstrate the success we’re having in disrupting criminal smugglers and keeping illegal drugs off the streets of the UK,” Owen added.

On September 24, 2012, the Border Force officers discovered 1.5 tonnes of cannabis, with a street value of around £4.3million, in three separate freight containers which had also originated in Accra, Ghana.

The seizure was the largest of its kind at Heathrow in several years.