Four Ghanaians found guilty of smuggling £4.5 million worth of weed to the UK

Four Ghanaians have been reportedly found guilty of smuggling £4.5 million worth of cannabis, also known as weed, to the United Kingdom by the Southwark Crown Court in London.

According to a report by echo-news.co.uk, the convicts, including Daniel Yeboah, 54; Kristoffen Baidoo, 48; Kwaku Bonsu, 52, all residents of London; and Edward Adjei, 48, from Grays, were found guilty by a jury of the court on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

The report indicated that the weed was discovered in a shipping container at the Tilbury Docks in London by officers of the border force in 2019.

It indicated that the weed consignment was smuggled from Ghana and arrived at the South Essex Docks on December 19, 2019, where it was held before being moved to London.

The interception of the drugs, the report indicated, was a result of intelligence obtained by the National Crime Agency and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission, which suggested it contained drugs.

Upon searching the container, the border officers found 2,335 packages of weed, which weighed a combined 1.5 tonnes, hidden inside white hessian sacks of gari powder.

The UK officials estimated the street value of the drugs would have been approximately £4.3 million.

Bags of cannabis seized by officers (Image: National Crime Agency)

The report also narrated how the now convicts were arrested as follows:

On the morning of January 13, 2020, the container travelled from Tilbury Docks on the back of a lorry to an industrial yard in north London under the watch of officers.

It was met by Yeboah, of Homerton High Street, who signed the delivery note using a fake signature, and a worker at the yard removed the container seal with an angle grinder.

Bonsu, of Arthur Road, Edmonton, was observed by National Crime Agency officers circling around the industrial yard in his car before taking photographs of the container using his mobile phone, and Adjei was spotted dropping Baidoo off at the yard.

Seemingly realising the drugs were missing, they all then fled the site in different cars, abandoning the load shortly after the container was opened.

As the men left the area, officers were in tow, and all were arrested later that day – Yeboah and Adjei, of London Road, Grays, were arrested in Homerton, Baidoo in Stratford, and Bonsu in Edmonton.

The shipping container and Gari sacks containing cannabis discovered by NCA officers (Image: National Crime Agency)

National Crime Agency senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar said: “Today’s result is testament to the joint international work between the NCA and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission to intercept the drug shipment and the tireless efforts of our officers to identify the criminal group behind its importation.

“Had this huge haul of cannabis reached the UK supply chain, it would have fuelled exploitation through county lines activity as well as serious violence and knife crime.

“Putting these harmful criminal groups before the courts and dismantling their illegal operations is a key part of the NCA’s mission to protect the public from serious and organised crime.”

A 10-tonne hydraulic press, often used for compressing drugs, was found at Baidoo’s address, and a number of devices were seized from the men, including mobile phones and dash cams from their vehicles.

Footage downloaded from the dash cam in Adjei’s Toyota picked up his phone calls to Baidoo and Yeboah shortly after the container arrived at the yard.

During a call with Yeboah, he said, “My brother, be a little watchful. It is all a little dodgy.”

Yeboah was also picked up on later calls, telling Adjei, “I don’t think the food [drugs] is in it” and “there was gari inside; they have removed most of the gari. The people are thieves.”

Text messages and e-mails found on Baidoo’s mobile phone uncovered his plot to take delivery of the drugs at the yard, which he had rented under a fake name to disguise his identity.

It was also evidenced that a bank account belonging to Bonsu made multiple payments to a shipping company for the container to be delivered from Tilbury Docks to the north London yard.

The court has set October 18, 2024, for the sentencing of the four men convicts.

BAI/OGB

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