Drug scandal at Kotoka: US Drug Agency arrests top Ghanaian airport security man in heroin syndicate
A security supervisor at Ghana’s Kokota International Airport (KIA) has been arrested by the US Drug Enforcement Agency for investigation after conspiring with international crime syndicates to push heroin through the Washington Dulles Airport in the US.
The Drug Enforcement Agency announced it worked with other federal agencies to arrest Edmund Darkwah, the security supervisor at KIA, who they say has been instrumental in the Dulles Heroin Pipeline, reports America’s National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Washington Bureau November 23, 2011.
According to the report, U.S. investigators say Darkwah took $2,000 bribes to let heroin-carrying couriers slip through security at Ghana’s international airport.
The report adds that the DEA says the couriers received $15,000 to smuggle quantities of heroin into the United States, often hidden in carry-on luggages or in wigs.
Darkwah faces charges on heroin distribution and conspiracy to import heroin, which carry maximum sentences of life in prison. Four others arrested in the investigation have already been extradited from Ghana to the United States, the NBC reports.
By Ekow Quandzie