Tribunal jails Ivorian for dealing in narcotics

Accra, May 17, GNA - A Greater Accra Regional Tribunal on Wednesday sentenced an Ivorian national to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour for attempting to import 496 grams of heroin.

The tribunal found Margaret Zehonon Dagrou, a 33-year old seamstress, guilty on two counts of attempted importation and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.

Dagrou, who was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport on March 29, 2004, was first put before the tribunal on June 7 of 2005. The case for the Prosecution was that on March 29, 2004, Dagrou, a native of Gagnoa in Cote d'Ivoire, arrived at the Kotoka International Airport on board an Emirate Airline flight from the Pakastani city of Karachi.

Personnel from the Narcotics Control Board on duty at the Airport suspected the convict due to her strange movement and demeanour. Dagrou was, therefore, sent to the Police Hospital for an x-ray examination on suspicion that she might have swallowed narcotic drugs. The result of the x-ray examination proved positive for foreign materials in the convict's stomach and she admitted having swallowed 50 oval-shaped pellets of heroin while in Karachi.

She told her interrogators that the drugs were to be delivered to a man, whose name she did not know, but who was to meet her at the Airport.

Dagrou was put under observation for three days, and she finally discharged the 50 pellets of heroin with a total weight of 496 grams. A test on the substance conducted by the Ghana Standards Board proved positive for narcotic drugs.