Dramatic Bust At Airport ... Cocaine in lawn mower

INTERPOL Ghana on Wednesday seized about 3.5 kilograms of cocaine stashed in a lawn mower imported from Venezuela.

A 41-year-old trader Kwesi Mensah, also known as Kwesi Ebo, has been arrested for the import of the drug, which was concealed in the engine of the mower from the South American country, a senior official of INTERPOL, Accra, told the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Thursday.

Mr Kwaku Opare-Addo, Head of INTERPOL of the Police Service, said the drug was ompressed in a compartment of the engine that was removed and then welded to avoid detection.

He said following a tip-off, his outfit started monitoring a parcel brought into the country by Fedex, an international courier, at the AFGO warehouse at the airport. Mr Opare-Addo said with the co-operation of officials of Fedex, INTERPOL kept surveillance till Wednesday when Mensah came to clear the parcel and he was arrested.

He said while going through clearing formalities, INTERPOL intervened and asked custom officials to thoroughly search the parcel, which, they suspected, to contain narcotics.

Mr Opare-Addo said upon Police intervention the lawn mower, which was in a cardboard box, was opened. The Police detected that part of the motor had been welded.

When they broke that part, they found white powder compressed in it, which officials of the Narcotics Control Board confirmed was 3.5 kilograms of cocaine. The suspect claimed that a woman asked him to take delivery of the parcel and he was not aware that it contained the drug.

He volunteered to take the police to the woman but when he took them to Taifa, where he claimed the woman lived, he could not show them the house.