Barons won't enjoy drug proceeds - NACOB

The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has expressed confidence that the expensive items (including furniture, some with a price tag of GHS3,200) confiscated from Night Angels, a shop belonging to jailed Ghanaian/Austrian drug queen Nayele Ametefe, donated to three rehab centres will help in rehabilitating the inmates.

NACOB made the donation on Wednesday, 21 June.

Speaking to journalists after the donation, Michael Addo, Deputy Executive Director of NACOB, said: “This morning, as part of the World Drug Day Celebration, we are making this presentation, telling the whole world that if you involve yourself in drugs and you are arrested, you will not live to enjoy the proceeds of the crime that you committed.

“We will have to seize them, we have been seizing houses, we have been seizing vehicles, and these are furniture that we think will go a long way to help the rehab centres. That is why we have called them here this morning to donate to them.

“At least they can be used at the reception or the waiting room. The inmates that are being rehabilitated can also relax in them. I believe it is going to facilitate their rehabilitation in bringing them back into society.”

Nayele Ametefe was arrested at Heathrow Airport in 2014 with 12kg of cocaine and has since been handed an eight-year jail term by the Isleworth Crown Court in the UK.

Just last week, former Executive Secretary of NACOB Akrasi Sarpong revealed that Nayele, until her arrest in the UK, hired BMWs in Ghana on a daily basis at a great cost.

According to him, Nayele’s ostentatious lifestyle raised the suspicions of NACOB officials who then placed her under close surveillance until her arrest in the United Kingdom.

Speaking on UTV on Friday June 16, Mr Sarpong said: “In 2009, she was the first person we called for when I was at NACOB and she went underground. At that time in 2009, she was renting BMWs on a daily basis for a huge sum of money.”

He added: “She is a smart girl. Anybody who does this type of work, the person’s IQ is very high, they are very smart.

"I am not saying we should pursue her alone, it is a network she worked with and the network that sponsored her is still in Ghana.”

Apart from the Isleworth Crown Court ruling, an Accra High Court ruled that some of her property be donated to charity. In fulfilment of that ruling, NACOB confiscated items including pieces of furniture, lighting systems and many others which have been given to rehab centres at a short ceremony at the NACOB headquarters.