WikiLeaks Cable: Ghana and drugs

SIPDIS

EO 12958 DECL: 06/29/2019
TAGS PGOV, SNAR, XA, XY, GH
SUBJECT: GHANA PRESIDENT LEADS FIGHT AGAINST NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKING

Classified By: Poloff Raymond Stephens for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

¶1. (C) SUMMARY: President John Evans Atta Mills has made private statements backed with public actions about his intention to reduce Ghana’s growing role in the drugs trade. GOG agencies are following his lead and have also made a discernible effort to eliminate drugs in the country. END SUMMARY

¶2. (U) One highly visible step taken by the President early in his administration to show that no one is above the law when it comes to smuggling drugs was to submit voluntarily to a thorough security screening when he departed from the airport on his first overseas state visit. He made a point of submitting his luggage to a search and required his entire entourage to do the same. The airport itemizers used to detect drugs were provided by the USG.

¶3. (C) President Mills took a significant step toward controlling the proliferation of drugs in his country by supporting the creation of a USG funded vetted anti-narcotics unit. In the past, the police lost a large amount of drugs kept in their possession that was to be used as evidence in future trials. The USG is building a secure room at police headquarters in which to store evidence in future drugs cases.

¶4. (C) Within the past two weeks, Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) officials have arrested four couriers transiting Accra’s international airport and seized between 1kg and 1.5kg each time. In another case involving regional law enforcement cooperation, a courier was allowed to transit Ghana successfully before being arrested in neighboring Cote d’Ivoire along with the intended recipient of the drugs. XXXXXXXXXX

¶5. (C) The President told the Ambassador that he knows elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there. The Interior Minister has said that there is a proposal to elevate the NACOB to a stand alone Commission that would report directly to the President. Such a move would enhance the status of the NACOB and give it more control over its budget, including better pay for staff.

¶6. (C) The NACOB is not the only agency working to eliminate narcotics trafficking in Ghana. The Ghana Immigration Service has been extremely cooperative in assisting DEA with the extradition of two suspected Colombian drug lords from Togo. Recently, Ghana border officials opened the border at 4:30am to allow DEA agents to move one suspect en route to board a flight to the US. In an operation involving another GOG agency, the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) partnered with the DEA to make a controlled delivery of 4kg of cocaine that resulted in the arrest of the recipient.

¶7. (SBU) Last month, a container in the port of Tema marked as chewing gum raised the suspicion of Ghana Ports Authority, Customs, Excise, and Preventative Service (CEPS) because it originated in Ecuador rather than the Far East, as usual. When CEPS opened the container, they found 71.4kg of cocaine. The find led to the arrest of five people, and police are now looking at asset forfeiture of the company that imported the shipment.

¶8. (U) President Mills has stated that he is resolute in stopping people from using Ghana as a narcotics transit corridor and will vigorously fight for the total eradication of hard drugs in the country. So far, he has shown a good faith effort. TEITELBAUM