Judgement in East Legon cocaine case soon

Accra, July 20, GNA - An Accra Fast Track High Court would on October 25 determine the fate of two Venezuelans allegedly connected to the 588 kilogrammes of cocaine seized from a house at Mepeasem, East Legon, Accra.

This was after the two accused persons had responded to the various charges levelled against them.

The two are Italio Gervasio Rosero a.k.a. Italio Cabeza Castillo, 38, a businessman and Moises Joel Meija Duarte Moises, a 35-year-old machine operator.

They are being held for conspiracy to commit crime, importing 588 kilograms of narcotic drugs without lawful authority and possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.

They have pleaded not guilty and have been remanded into police custody by the Court since November 24, 2005. The third Venezuelan, Vasquez Gerado Duarte David, a.k.a. Bude or Shamo is at large. During the trial prosecution called nine witnesses to make its case while defence called none before the court, presided over by Mr. Justice E.Y. Ayibi.

The court, however, directed both the defence counsel Mr Kwablah Senanu and prosecution team led by Ms Gertrude Aikins, Acting Director for Public Prosecution, to file their addresses by the end of August. This would enable the court to pronounce judgement. Meanwhile, the prosecutions said the report on the authenticity of Rosero's passport was not yet ready. At the last sitting Rosero produced his passport while answering questions under cross-examination. Prosecution had demanded the passport since his arrest in November 24, 2005 and informed the court that they could not trace it since Rosero had told the Police that his briefcase, which contained his personal belongings, had been stolen. At another time, he told the court that his passport was with one Marko, his friend.

The prosecution objected to the tendering of the passport saying it needed to be investigated for its authenticity before it could be admitted in evidence.

The court, however, overruled the prosecution's submission, saying the passport should be admitted for "what it was worth". The court said it would not prevent the prosecution from verification of its authenticity. Prosecution therefore applied to the court to release the passport for verification and the court granted it. The case of the prosecution is that on November 24, 2005, a team of detectives from the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), acting upon a tip-off that there was cocaine in House Number 348 at Mepeasem at East Legon in Accra, went to the house where they met Moises.

Joel was arrested and he led the Police to his upper room where three bottles of ammonium used to turn cocaine into crack, a machine used in compressing the cocaine, 13 pieces of gloves and a quantity of plastic wrappers were found.

The prosecution said brown cellulose tapes, a filtering bottle used in filtering and sniffing cocaine, an exercise book used in recording the names of people who had purchased and those that had been supplied with the drugs and two cell phones were also found.