NACOB takes over assets of drug baron
The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has taken possession of assets confiscated from a drug baron currently serving a term of imprisonment at the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in the United States of America (USA).
Advertisement
The convict, Edward Macauley, on April 6, 2012, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import heroin and was convicted on his own plea. He was subsequently sentenced to 168 months.
The confiscated assets include house number 19 Close, 611 situated at Dansoman Estates and its fixtures; 60 per cent share of MACASH Enterprise Limited in Accra; a Mercedes Benz car with registration number DV 589 A and Plot No. 2A Mango Close at Dansoman in Accra.
The confiscation of the assets follows a December 18, 2015 and February 26, 2016 judgements granting the State permission to take over the property as it was undisputed that the respondent had been convicted of a narcotics offence and is serving his sentence.
Facilitation
The court also established that the confiscated properties were either used to facilitate the commission of the crime or were derived from the proceeds of crime and their confiscation would deprive the respondent of benefiting from his crime and also serve as punishment for dealing in drugs.
The Presiding Judge, Mrs Georgina Mensah-Datsa, a Justice of the High Court, held that having evaluated the totality of the evidence adduced in the case, the facts and circumstances of it and on the balance of probabilities, the court had come to the conclusion that the property were “the property of the respondent herein and not his lawful attorney, the claimant herein.”
“It is not in dispute that the respondent herein has been convicted of a narcotic offence and is currently serving his sentence. I am satisfied that the property herein was derived from the proceeds of crime”, she said.
“I hereby grant the application for confiscation and confiscate Plot No. 2A Mango Close, Dansoman Accra belonging to the respondent herein to the state. There is no order as to costs,” she stated in her judgement.
Facts of the Case
The facts of the case were that somewhere in 2011, the applicant was arrested by the security agencies for being a manager of a Ghana-based heroin trafficking organisation responsible for illegally importing multiple kilogrammes of heroin into the USA.
Subsequently, the respondent and some of his ring leaders were extradited to the USA to stand trial and on April 6, 2012, the respondent pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import heroin and was accordingly convicted and sentenced by the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division.
Power of attorney
The Deputy Director of NACOB, Nii Lantey Blankson, told the Daily Graphic that the convict gave a power of attorney to his oldest son, Edward Macauley Junior, to pursue the suit on his behalf.
He said before his arrest, Edward Macauley had been on NACOB’s wanted list and his activities as a drug dealer had been monitored since 2002.
According to Nii Blankson, Macauley operated with the assistance of some accomplices at the Ghana Airport Company by using couriers aboard commercial airlines to smuggle heroin from Ghana to the USA.
Nii Blankson said Macauley also used his house as a meeting place for drug couriers in order to facilitate or aid drug trafficking activities and though he had the burden of proving that the above property was not tainted, illegal or acquired through illegitimate means, he woefully failed to do so.