Cocaine seized at East Legon destroyed

Accra, April 24, GNA - Twelve boxes containing cocaine, seized by the Police at Mempeasem, East Legon on November 24, 2005 were on Tuesday destroyed at the Independence Square following a court order.

The order came after prosecution in the 588-kilogramme cocaine case prayed the court for an order for the immediate destruction after it had admitted them in evidence.

The court, which went on a locus at the Criminal Investigation Department obliged and ordered that officials of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ghana Standard Board (GSB) supervise the destruction.

Others represented included the Press, representative of the Inspector General of Police, the prosecution, defence and official of the Narcotics Control Board.

Earlier, the court inspected the 12 boxes and asked the Ghana Standard Board to conduct another test on samples in the boxes before they were destroyed.

Joel Meija Duarte Moises a 35-year-old machine operator and Italio Gervasio Rosero a.k.a Italio Cabeza Castillo 38, a businessman are being held for conspiracy to commit crime, importing 588-kilograms of narcotic drugs without lawful authority and possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.

They have pleaded not guilty and have been remanded into police custody by the Court.

The third Venezuelan, Vasquez Gerado Duarte David, a.k.a Bude or Shamo is at large.

But drama unfolded when Mr Kwablah Senanu, the defence counsel objected to the name given to a glass jar with metal fixtures and a tube which the accused allegedly used to test the potency of drugs. According to Mr Senanu, it should be named as a trophy because the name given by the prosecution as a jar sought to incriminate the accused persons.

He said the glass jar with metal fixtures looked like trophies offered to football teams and individuals saying, "Azumah Nelson has many of these trophies in his custody."

This sent audience into a roar of laughter.

Led in evidence by Ms Gertrude Aikins, Chief State Attorney, Chief Inspector Ernest Godfred Frimpong told the court that on November 24, 2005 he was among a team of Policemen who went to the house of the accused persons at East Legon.

According to him, information gathered by the Police indicated that "Illegal narcotic activities" were taking place at the house at East Legon.

Chief Inspector Frimpong, the eighth prosecution witness said when the team got to the house at about 2:00 pm they knocked but no one responded.

The leader of the team, Superintendent Edward Tabiri, according to witness ordered that they scale the wall to get access to the house. Witness said the Policemen were stationed at various points in the one-story house.

Witness said they shouted: "Police Presence, Police Presence" and spotted Moises whom they beckoned to come out which he did. Moises led them to his bedroom, which was on the first floor, where a search was conducted. Three bottles of Ammonia, quantities of hand gloves, a brown solution, tapes and bunch of keys were found in the room.

Other items found were two rolls of KLM Cargo stickers, plain polythene bags, a compressing machine, sniffing pipe and silver foils. Chief Inspector Frimpong said the discovery of the items aroused Police suspicion that there could be drugs in the house.

Witness said the Police peeped through another window to a room and found brown boxes packed there.

Chief Frimpong said they used the bunch of keys to open the door to the other room and found tablets of substances suspected to be cocaine some of which were scattered on the floor. Witness said Moises cautioned the Police not mix the drugs splashed on the floor with those in the boxes.

"Superintendent Tabiri informed the Director General of the CID to dispatch a team from the Crime Scene Inspection Unit to the house," witness said.

Witness said the Police used mobile phones seized from Moises to call his brother to bring some monies to bail his brother who had been arrested by the Police. Chief Inspector Frimpong said a few minutes later, Castillo arrived at the house and was escorted to the first floor where his mobile phones were also seized. Moises, when queried stated that the drugs belonged to one "Shamo" a Blackman.

The case of the Prosecution is that on November 24, 2005, a team of detectives from the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), acting upon a tip-off that there was cocaine in house number 348 at Mempeasem, in Accra, went to the house where they met Moises.

Moises was arrested and he led the Police to his upper room, where three bottles of ammonium used to turn cocaine into crack, a machine used in compressing the cocaine, 13 pieces of gloves and a quantity of plastic wrappers were found. The Prosecution said brown cellulose tapes; a filtering bottle used in filtering and sniffing cocaine; an exercise book used in recording the names of people, who had purchased and had been supplied with the drugs and two cell phones were also found. The court ordered its Registrar to write to the Ghana Institute of Languages to provide an additional Venezuelans interpreter. The case has been adjourned to May 2.