Three drivers jailed 45 years for dealing in cocaine

Accra, July 7, GNA - Three drivers arrested at Nsawam two years ago for hiding 399 slabs of cocaine among quantities of cow legs and hide in a Benz truck were on Wednesday sentenced to 15 years imprisonment each by the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal.

Kwame Anane 36, Kofi Amewu Eugene 32, and Deblui Kofi Valentine 37, all drivers, pleaded not guilty to abetment of crime and possessing 398,595,013 grammes of cocaine without lawful authority. However, the tribunal at the end of the trial, found them guilty on the charges.

They would serve 10 years each for abetment and 15 years each for possessing narcotic drugs without authority. The sentences are to run concurrently from the day of their arrest. The tribunal presided over by Mr Justice Kwadwo Owusu ordered that the truck used in transporting the drugs from Conakry, Guinea to Ghana, should be confiscated to the Ghana Police Service. Mr Frederick Boamah, defence counsel pleaded for mitigation saying they were first offenders and young; therefore the tribunal should give them minimum sentences.

Mr Asiamah Sampong, Principal State Attorney, told the tribunal that on May 29, 2008, the Police at Nsawam in the Eastern Region, had information about a Mercedes Benz truck with Registration number GT 3359 Z which had entered Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region from Conakry, Guinea with quantities of cocaine on board.

A team of Police personnel were dispatched to patrol a filling station in Kumasi where the said truck had parked. The Police personnel followed the truck from Kumasi to Nsawam where they searched the truck, and 399 slabs of substances suspected to be cocaine hidden in a false compartment specially constructed were found. The accused persons were arrested and the suspected drugs forwarded to the Ghana Standards Board for analytical examination, which proved positive of cocaine weighing 398,595,013 grammes. 7 July 10