Police seize ?40,000 in drugs raid ; Ghanaian arrested

Wellingborough, UK --NEARLY ?40,000 in cash was recovered in a drugs raid on a house in Wellingborough.

Cannabis with a street value of hundreds of thousands of pounds was also seized by police at another house, a jury heard.

The drugs had been sent in parcels from Ghana, west Africa, but its distribution in this country was halted after the Post Office alerted police, Northampton Crown Court was told yesterday.

Evans Quaye, 37, formerly of Henshaw Road, Wellingborough, denied conspiracy to import the cannabis and conspiracy to supply it between March 1, 2000, and April 30 last year.

It was alleged he conspired to commit the offences with others including Doris Akotey, 27, of the same address, who had been charged with similar offences.

The jury heard she had absconded.

Nicholas Dean, prosecuting, said 11 parcels addressed to four different addresses in Wellingborough were intercepted at the Mount Pleasant sorting office in London and police in Northamptonshire were informed.

Three addressed to a house in Henshaw Road were found to contain 10kg of cannabis. Police repackaged one which was addressed to Charles Phillips, a fictitious person.

A policeman posing as a postman delivered it and shortly afterwards the house was raided. Among items recovered was cash totalling nearly ?40,000.

A house in Guillemot Lane, Wellingborough, was also searched and blocks of cannabis totalling 46kg, with a street value of ?200,000, were found. Mr Dean said it was the prosecution’s case that Quaye had links with the houses to which the cannabis had been sent. According to forms he had completed his annual income was ?12,000, but bank accounts he controlled showed that in just over a year ?110,000 had been paid in.

When arrested, Quaye denied any knowledge of the drugs found and being involved in any conspiracy.

The trial continues.