The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has, in a joint exercise with its collaborating agencies, destroyed 413 slabs of cocaine (with an estimated street value of $60 million) brought into the country by four Guyanese and a Ghanaian.
The exercise was executed on the orders of the trial judge, Justice C.J. Hoenyenugah, a Court of Appeal judge who sat on the case in which two persons, Miller Ronald O’Neil and Seth Grant, were sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment last Tuesday, for illegally importing the cocaine into Ghana.
The narcotics were destroyed at the beach behind the Accra Arts Centre in the full glare of the trial judge, the court registrar and personnel of the other agencies.
Three other accomplices are still standing trial, having pleaded guilty with explanation on December 13, 2013.
The court, before pronouncing the 35-year jail sentence on the two accused persons, ordered NACOB officials to count the 414 slabs of cocaine in open court.
It further directed that one slab should be kept in the custody of the registrar till the end of the trial.
Involvement of DEA
The court, before the destruction exercise, granted forensic chemists from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States of America Department of Justice, the permission to collect one gram each of 30 randomly selected slabs from the courtroom for further investigations in the US.
This was to enable the DEA to trace the origin and purity of the drugs to enhance future investigations.
The court’s order was based upon a written request from the NACOB and the US Embassy, with an explanation given by Laura Michelle Jones, an American forensic chemist from Virginia, as to why the samples were needed.
The bust
The vessel, MV ATTIYAH, with registration number 000471, containing the cocaine was intercepted in Ghana’s deep waters as it sailed from Guyana.
The bust was made on November 19, 2013 by the Western Naval Command in Takoradi and that led to the seizure of 21 sacks that containing the 414 slabs of cocaine.
