Insurance Agent jailed 14 years for dealing in narcotics

Accra, July 14, GNA - A Greater-Accra Regional Tribunal has sentenced a 32-year-old Insurance Agent to 14 years' imprisonment for possessing narcotic drugs.

At the end of his trial, which lasted for about a year, Kwabena Ankoma Darko, who had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge, was found guilty by the tribunal and convicted accordingly. On July 10, 2004, Security Personnel arrested Darko at the last checkpoint at the Kotoka International Airport with a quantity of heroin, weighing 12.954 kilograms when he was going through departure formalities with his wife and their two children to travel to the United States.

This was after the security men had intercepted Darko's hand luggage, which had two parcels containing a powdery substance. The Ghana Standards Board proved that the substance was heroin and the couple were charged with possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.

However, on May 17, 2004, the Tribunal acquitted and discharged the wife, after the Prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against her.