Ghana mounts search for two suspects in Heathrow cocaine case
The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) of Ghana has mounted a search for two men said to have aided the shipment of large quantities of Indian hemp and cocaine to the United Kingdom two months ago.
The two suspects, Obed Amevor, 45, from the Aviation Profiling Security Services (APSS) and Frank Amoah, alias Kofi, a 50-year-old freight forwarder, are alleged to have gone into hiding soon after the seizure of the drugs at London’s Heathrow Airport.
According to the Deputy Executive Secretary of NACOB, Nii Lante Blankson, soon after the seizure of large quantities of cocaine and marijuana in London, the two went into hiding and all efforts to trace their whereabouts had so proved futile.
He said an Accra Circuit Court had issued a warrant for the arrest of the two suspects and indicated that a handsome reward awaited anyone who volunteered information that would lead to their arrest.
He, therefore, appealed to members of the public with any information that would lead to their arrest to contact the offices of NACOB or the nearest police station.
On September 24, 2012, officials of the Border Force in the UK discovered 1.5 tonnes of cannabis, with a street value of around £4.3 million, in three separate freight containers which had originated from Accra, Ghana.
The seizure was the largest of its kind at Heathrow in several years.
In October, British officials announced that they had intercepted another drug consignment smuggled from Ghana, a day after a similar seizure.
Officials at the Heathrow Airport said a consignment of cocaine concealed in plantains from Ghana was seized a day after the biggest cannabis haul seizure from Ghana at the airport.
The UK Border Force said the cocaine weighed about 7.5 kg. The agency found the consignment on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 hidden inside plantains within a larger freight consignment of fruits and vegetables from Ghana.
An exporter who allegedly masterminded the trafficking of the drugs through the Kotoka International Airport to Heathrow was later arrested after thorough investigations.
The suspect, Francis Kwame Asante, 64, aka Wofa, was arrested in Accra in a successful NACOB and Bureau of National Investigations joint operation but his two accomplices, Amoah and Amevor, managed to escape.
Source: Daily Graphic