The Herald’s preliminary investigations into the arrest of Solomon Adelaquaye, an official of Sohin Security Check, a private security company operating at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in New York and charged with using his position to conspire to import heroin into the U.S, have revealed some very interesting details.

First, this paper discovered that 48-year-old Solomon Adelaquaye, who faces a life sentence if convicted by the American court, has no office at the KIA, but only pay regular visits to check on his men deployed there.

Secondly, our investigations also established that a competitor, Magnum Force, said to be owned by the late Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, but is being managed by a certain Seidu Mohammed, connected to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was behind attempts to link Sohin Security Check to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Thirdly, it also came up that Sohin Security Check, till they were driven away from the KIA, were not in-charge of the entire airport, but an area described in aviation parlance as “Landside”, which includes the sewage area, Central Stores, Car Parks, banks and other areas, but were not connected to the various terminals.

Fourthly, The Herald discovered that the “Airside,” which includes main terminal, the departure halls leading to the take-off of the aircraft, is handled by another company called, Aviation Security Company, under the supervision of the Ghana Airport Company Limited and headed by Ms. Doreen Owusu Fianko.

Again, it emerged that Sohin Security Check was not handpicked to protect the sewage area, Central Stores, Car Parks, banks and other areas, but went through a competitive bidding process, leading to their presence at the KIA since 2009.

Solomon Adelaquaye’s Sohin Security Check went into the tender process with 11 security companies namely: Magnum Force; Highland Security Service Limited; Safeguard Security Company Limited; Yutis Security Service Limited; Venus Security Limited; Vizko Security Limited; Frats Squad Security Services; Panos Security Services Limited; GS Ghana Limited and Pro-Guard Service Limited.

Solomon Adelaquaye’s company and 11 others were thoroughly vetted by the officials of National Security Council and handed over to the Ghana Airports Company Limited, for a continuation of the tender process which included, Tender Evaluation by the Entity Tender Board, Central Tender Board and the Public Procurement.

Prior to the engagement of Solomon Adelaquaye’s private company, Magnum Force, which was linked to the late vice-president, had been put in-charge of the KIA and was shockingly, said to be even policing the Golden Jubilee Lounge, meant for use by the president and other VVIPs.

Magnum Force, however, failed to win the 2009 tender process when the Mills administration took over the leadership of this country.

Prior to contracting Sohin Security Check, Ghana under the John Agyekum Kufuor administration, had experienced a huge increase in the amount of cocaine and other narcotic drugs, being shipped from Ghana, through KIA.

Others like the MV Benjamin 77 parcels of cocaine, which was coming into the country with security agencies notified, were left un-arrested.

At Prampram near Tema, residents saw cocaine being casted from fishing boats into waiting trucks while in the Western region, parcels of cocaine were found at the beaches.

These and other happenings, including the arrest of the NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkroraza North, Eric Amoateng led to Ghana earning an unenviable name, Cocaine Coast, under the Kufuor presidency.

Ex-NPP National Youth Organizer, yesterday on Metro TV, confirmed Magnum Force’s connection to the NPP by revealing that apart from KIA, Magnum Force was also protecting some of the 17 NPP presidential aspirants, who vied for the flagbearership slot in 2007 at Legon.

Airport officials who know Solomon Adelaquaye, who hails from the southern part of the Volta Region, expressed shock at his involvement in the narcotic trade and his subsequent arrest.

He was described as a very humble, submissive and unassuming man.

The Ghana Airport Company Limited’s Managing Director, Ms. Doreen Owusu Fianko, advised The Herald to speak to the National Security outfit, as they have been warned not to talk to the media on the matter.

According to US media reports, Solomon Adelaquaye, arranged to help a courier move a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the drug through the airport in Accra in exchange for $10,000, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors described Adelaquaye as “responsible for security” at the airport.

At a meeting with Adelaquaye in his office at the airport in February 2012, the courier said the heroin was hidden in a laptop computer, according to the indictment, Adelaquaye is said to have given the computer to his associate while the courier gave Adelaquaye $6,000 in cash and agreed to pay him $4,000 later, according to prosecutors. The courier got the laptop back after passing through airport security, prosecutors said.

In reality, the purported courier and a person posing as a buyer were working undercover for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and their meetings with Adelaquaye were recorded.

Adelaquaye was arrested last month in New York and brought before a federal magistrate in Manhattan along with two Nigerian nationals. A fourth suspect was arrested in Colombia.

‘Safe Passage’

“These alleged narco-traffickers assumed they had secured safe passage for their heroin from West Africa to the United States by paying off an airport insider, but unknown to them, the people on the other side of their transaction were law enforcement insiders working for the DEA,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a June 3 statement.

Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer with the Federal Defender’s office in New York, who represented Adelaquaye in court, had no immediate comment on the case.

Government on June 3 ordered state-run Ghana Airport Co. to immediately suspend its contract with Sohin Security Co., according to a statement on the presidency’s website.

The other three suspects charged are Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda, a 72-year-old Colombian, Frank Muodum, 44, and Celestine OforOrjinweke, 53, both Nigerian nationals. Pinedo-Rueda is awaiting extradition from Colombia, the DEA said.

The amount of drug trafficked through West Africa to South Africa and Europe has been declining steadily to about 21 tons in 2009, from a peak of as much as 47 tons in 2007, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The smuggling of the single kilogram was to have been the precursor to a much larger heroin operation, according to prosecutors and the DEA.

Adelaquaye, Muodum and Orjinweke, met last month with one of the undercover agents to discuss a plan to supply the agent with heroin in exchange for 3,000 kilograms of cocaine worth $75 million, according to the indictment.

Those meetings were also recorded, prosecutors said.

The case is U.S. v. Pinedo-Rueda, 12-cr-00286, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

More to come…