Quantson: Still hope to redeem national image

Accra, Aug. 24, GNA - Mr Kofi Bentum Quantson, a Former Chief Executive of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), on Thursday told the Justice Georgina Wood Committee investigating drug cases that there was still hope for the country to redeem her image from the drug mess. "We have not come to the end of the road. We can learn from other countries," he said.

"It is a continuous process and how far we would go would depend on the measures we put in place and the way we are able to enforce those measures."

Mr Quantson, who was addressing the Committee on the way forward in the fight against drugs, said it would be won if people who were to support the anti-drug fight would stop interfering by putting undue pressure on the security agencies.

He cited an instance during his tenure, where after the arrest of a drug suspect a "man in cassock" came to him to ask him to release the offender. When he refused the man told him that he would definitely go to hell. Mr Quantson said he told the 'man in cassock' that they would meet there.

He agreed to a suggestion to empower the NACOB to prosecute drug offences saying that would be possible if only it were raised from its 'Board status' to that of a Commission independent of the ministerial system.

Mr Quantson, who was the National Security Co-ordinator in addition to his position as the CEO of NACOB in the mid-1990s, cited an instance of a Judge, who was allegedly bribed to impose a fine lower than a bribe a drug suspect had offered officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) when they arrested him at the Aflao border. He said his outfit wrote to the then Chief Justice and sent a reminder a year later, but the Chief Justice replied that he was not obliged to review the decision.

Mr Quantson said during his time when drug suspects were arrested their names and pictures were published to discourage others from engaging in the business.

He said the naming and shaming of drug suspects through media publications to avoid interference in the work of the security agencies in dealing with drug suspects was stopped because a section of the media regarded it as an infringement on the human rights of the suspects. The Former National Security Co-ordinator raised the alarm over foreign nationals, who were drug barons but entered the country under the guise of investors.

"No drug dealer would come with a suitcase labelled 'drug money'," he said, adding that such investors fronted for reputable banks and engaged in money laundering.

"If we say we are going to take a tooth brush and investigate most of these companies in the country we would have a problem.=94 He said drug barons in general appeared simple and often gave to charities to hide their real identities to make their movement very easy and unsuspicious.

Citing the case of Pablo Escobar, the Columbian drug kingpin, who was shot by security agencies in the early 1990s, Mr Quantson said drug barons carved a niche for themselves. They had a number of supporters, who carried on the trade after their arrest.

He said because of the popularity Escobar had, he had a large following and even his request to build his own designer prison when he was arrested was granted.

Only the illiterate ones are flamboyant, he said. Mr Quantson said drug barons had their own intelligence networks, which studied the ground before bringing in their consignments. "They won't bring in large quantities if they knew they are not safe.=94 He pointed out that the drug trade subsisted on corruption and a weak economy. "It is only a corrupt society that can corrupt the Police and the Judiciary".

Mr Quantson said the desire for quick money had pushed many people into drugs and barons infiltrated the major State institutions that they could corrupt to carry on their illicit trade.

"If you have a weak economy and you depend largely on foreign imports, you have to get hold of the foreign currency; so people go into drugs to get the foreign currency."

Mr Quantson, also a former Boss of the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID), advocated a tripod of measures to fight the drug menace - law enforcement, prevention through education and treatment and rehabilitation.

He said education on HIV/AIDS had taken over that of drugs, which was also a national as well as an international priority. Mr Quantson said so far as drugs continued to be on the local market, then the country would still have problems.

He called for caution and balance in making arrests in connection with drugs at the country's entry points explaining that in the drug war the more arrest that were made at the ports the less happy the nation should be because most of the arrests were only front people of the barons, since it was a big chain.

However, if only one arrest was made in four months it meant that the barons were outwitting the security agencies.

According to Mr Quantson Ghana was in 1999 adjudged the best country in the West African Sub-Region in the fight against drug and that if the nation worked hard it could re-capture its former glory. Mr Quantson promised to give the Committee a written version of his address later.

In a related development the Committee received the written submission of Mr Ben Ndego, a Former Deputy Chief Executive NACOB, who has been interdicted. He appeared before the Committee earlier in camera.

Sitting continues.