"Cocaine Soup" Chief Resides In Holland

... Regular contributor GhanaWeb forum
... Chairman of Lover`s club in the Hague
Accra - The tribal chief awaiting trial for attempting to smuggle cocaine to Holland in cans of palm soup, is a resident of the the Hague in the Netherlands.

Osei Toddy Bonsu, a chief in the Ashanti region, was remanded after a hearing in Accra on Thursday.

Resident in Holland, Bonsu was arrested on Dec. 6 at Kotoka international airport as he returned to Europe after attending his father's funeral.

He told police officers he was carrying the three cans of palm soup to the brother of a lady he had just met.

"They inspected them by piercing them: the contents revealed a powdery substance, which was tested and proven to be cocaine," the deputy executive secretary of the Narcotics Control Board said.

Bonsu faces charges of possession of narcotic drugs and attempting to export them. If found guilty, he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years.

Bonsu, who denies all charges, was made a traditional ruler of the Agogo area of Ashanti in August.

According to a source, he is the chairman of Lover`s club in the Hague and has been a regular contributor on the GhanaWeb discussion forum (coments).

The case is the latest in a wave of high-profile drug arrests in Ghana which has highlighted the nations role as a smuggling route from South America to Europe.

Eighteen people, including a top police officer, were charged with narcotics-related offences in September after a major drugs shipment disappeared while under police surveillance earlier this year.

Last year, a member of parliament Eric Amoateng was arrested in New York, where he faces trial on drug trafficking charges.