Six in court over 30 kilo cocaine case

Accra, May 30, GNA - Six persons who were arrested in connection with the 30 kilogramme consignment of cocaine on a Ghanaian registered fishing trawler, MV Benjamin, on Tuesday appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.

The accused persons - three Ghanaians, two Chinese and a Korean - are Isaac Arhin, James Kingsley Inkoom, Philip Bruce Arhin, Luo Jin Xing, and Cui Xiangli, and Park Bok Sil.

They have been charged for importing narcotic drugs without license from the Ministry of Health, possessing narcotic drugs and engaging in criminal conspiracy.

The Court did not take their pleas and remanded them into prison custody to reappear on June 12.

The court further ordered the prosecution to write to the Chinese Embassy in Ghana to provide interpreters so that charges and facts of the case could be interpreted to the two Chinese.

Meanwhile, counsel for accused persons have prayed the court to remand them into police custody instead of prison custody since they were finding it difficult to talk to their clients.

Defence counsel contended that their clients had been in custody for a month and they were finding it difficult to talk to them. They said prison officers did not allow us to talk to our clients after 1500 hours.

Mr Mohamed Attah, who represented Sil said his client was only going to pay redundancy wages to the workers after the vessel owner had disposed it.

"My Lord, if you read through the facts, My Lord would observe that most of these persons should not have been here," Mr Attah said. The prosecution, however, indicated that orders had been given by the Police Administration to send all drug related offenders in police cells to the prisons.

According to the prosecution, the police would only need Sil in their custody to assist in further investigations. The case is that on April 27, this year, as part of the effort to combat drug trade, the security agencies received intelligence report that a Ghanaian registered vessel named Adade II was carrying drugs into the country.

A joint team of Narcotic Control Board and Ghana Navy conducted a search on the sea and impounded a Ghanaian vessel, which had the same features as Adade II but had inscription MV Benjamin with registration number AF582.

On board the vessel were five crew made up of three Ghanaians and two Chinese.

Investigations revealed that the Captain and Chief Engineer of the vessel had earlier left with 77 boxes of similar substances in three canoes.

Further investigations also revealed that Sil was in-charge of the boat.