Cocaine courier goes in for 10 years

Accra, May 24, GNA - An Accra Regional Tribunal has sentenced Jacob Oppong, a Ghanaian resident in Spain, to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour, for attempting to export 585 grams of cocaine out of the country.

Oppong, who was put before the Tribunal on May 10 2006, initially pleaded not guilty to possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.

Later, Oppong changed his plea to guilty and the Tribunal chaired by Mr Justice Frank Manu, convicted him accordingly, and imposed the jail term on him.

The Tribunal had ordered that the drugs be destroyed. The facts of the case as narrated by Assistant State Attorney Mr Frederick Boamah on May 10 were that on April 24 2005, the convict arrived at the Kotoka International Airport to board a KLM Flight to Spain.

The Prosecution stated that personnel from the Narcotics Control Board on duty at the Airport suspected Oppong, and escorted him to the 37th Military Hospital where he was subjected to an X-ray examination. The Convict expelled 50 pellets of whitish substances suspected to be cocaine, a narcotic drug.

Upon interrogation, Oppong admitted the offence and said he was carrying it for a fee of 1,300 dollars.

He mentioned one Baba as the person who gave him the drugs to be delivered to another person in Spain called Sunday. When the suspected substances were forwarded to the Ghana Standards Board for analysis, they were certified to be cocaine.