KIA Security Boss, 3 others busted in mega drugs haul

The Narcotics Control Board of Ghana, NACOB, has busted a Ghanaian and three other nationals involved in drugs trafficking.

A statement issued by NACOB and signed by its Executive Secretary Mr. Yaw Akrasi Sarpong on Tuesday June 4, 2013 said the “cooperation between the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, of the Department of Justice of the United States of America and the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) of Ghana led to the busting of another international drug trafficking syndicate which has been operating between the West African Sub region and the US”.

The statement said the members of the syndicate arrested are a Columbian, two Nigerians and a Ghanaian.

They were all arrested in the US in May following an operation in Ghana by NACOB and DEA.

The operation lasted slightly over a year.

The arrested members of the syndicate have been charged in the US.

NACOB officials have given the names of the arrested persons as Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda, a Columbian; Frank Chima Muodum and Orjinweke Celestine Ofor, Nigerians and Solomon Adelaquaye, a Ghanaian.

Mr. Solomon Adelaquaye is the Managing Director of Sohin Security Services Limited which until recently provided security services at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

It would be recalled that, the government on June 2, 2013 directed the Ghana Airport Company Limited to suspend, with immediate effect, the contract with Sohin Security Company, providers of security services at the various Airports in the country.

NACOB and DEA, under the auspices of the 2009 cooperation agreement between the ministry of justice and the Attorney General’s Department of Ghana and the Department of Justice of the USA, have over the period successfully disrupted and dismantled a number of major drug trafficking syndicates that operate through West Africa to the US.

The statement said between 2010 and 2013, as a result of joint operations by NACOB and DEA, a number of persons were arrested and extradited from Ghana, to stand trial in the District of Virginia on Drug trafficking offenses.

In all, eleven co-conspirators have been convicted as a result of these operations.

The Governing Board of NACOB said it commends its partners including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), the DEA, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the West Bridge team both of the UK, the French and German partners as well as partners from West Africa, especially Nigeria, Togo, and Benin, for their support and contribution to the successes of the anti-narcotics drug enforcement efforts of the Government of Ghana.

Mr. Akrasi Sarpong also commended the contribution of the Ghana Police Service, the Bureau of National Investigations, the customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghana Prisons Service and all other stakeholders in the fight against drugs in Ghana.