Ghanaian narcotics officials said on Thursday they had busted an international drugs cartel in the port city of Tema, after seizing 674 kilograms of cocaine that was in transit to Europe.
The principal suspect is a former employee of the PFC/StarKist/Heinz tuna cannery in Ghana. He was fired about two years ago. Currently he is a Director of Tuna-To-Go Limited, a tuna purse seine owning company from whom TTV Limited (a subsidiary of Heinz) chartered tuna purse seiners and run them. These purse seiners picked up the cocaine from sea.
“The street value of the drugs, which were about to be shipped to the United Kingdom, has been confirmed to be US $145 million,†Edmund Tei, an official at Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board, told IRIN. It is the largest quantity of drugs ever seized in Ghana, and one of the largest ever to be intercepted in West Africa, which has increasingly become a transit point for shipping heroin and cocaine into Europe.
Tei said the drugs, packed in 22 cartoons, were concealed in the residence of Kevin Gorman, a 59 year-old American, who was arrested along with three British nationals, two Ghanaians and a German.
Gorman, who together with the two Ghanaians manages the Tuna To-Go Fishing Company at Tema, denied onwership of the drugs, Tei said. The American said the cocaine belonged to a friend and he had no idea how it had been brought into Ghana.
Narcotics officials said they suspected the cocaine had been dropped by a plane flying in from South America, into Ghana’s offshore territorial waters and then was picked up by tuna fishing boats, which were chartered by a subsidiary of the Heinz tuna operation in Ghana – TTV Limited-, which brought the drugs ashore.
They added that the consignment was due to have been shipped to the UK in containers containing liquid shea nut butter. This is an edible oil produced from the fruit of the shea nut tree in northern Ghana, that is used for both cosmetics and cooking.
Narcotics officials said there had been an increase in the smuggling of cocaine and heroin through Ghana into Europe in recent years, mainly through the port of Tema and Accra international airport. However they added that it was difficult to quantify the amount of drugs passing through the country.
“We are working out with the Navy and other security agencies to ensure that we closely monitor our borders in order to stem the activities of these drug dealers and smugglers,†Tei told IRIN. For years the government has had problems controlling Ghana's 539-km Atlantic coastline as well as the 2,093-kilometer land border with Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo.
Colonel Isaac Akuoko, the Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board, told reporters that his team started its investigations into the operations of the cocaine smuggling group that has just been busted about two years ago. British Officials had been involved in the investigations for the last six months, he added.
“We have done our part. We will not relent to free this country of narcotic drugs, as well as break the network of drug barons who try to use Ghana as a warehouse and a transit point for the shipment of narcotic drugs,†Akuoko said.
Ghana has stiff laws to counter drug trafficking of narcotics. Those convicted face long prison terms and the confiscation of their property.