A-G to start process for extradition of British drug baron
The Attorney-General’s Department will this week start the processes to extradite the British fugitive and drug lord who was arrested in Ghana after planning to smuggle 400 kilogrammes of cocaine into Britain.
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The British government last Friday made the request for the extradition of David McDermott, 42, the fugitive who is suspected of conspiring in a foiled plot to smuggle the drug, worth £71 million, into the United Kingdom.
He was arrested in a joint operation by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the British National Crime Agency (NCA).
He is expected to be sent to court today, in line with Ghana’s laws which do not allow suspects to be held in custody for more than 48 hours after their arrest without a court remand order.
McDermott is suspected of being a member of a Liverpool-based organised crime group involved in a conspiracy to import and supply cocaine which was seized from a container of frozen Argentinian beef at Tilbury Docks in May 2013.
He is also wanted for conspiracy to blackmail.
Six other members of the criminal group have been jailed for a total of 64 years.
A cropped photograph on the NCA’s website showed a handcuffed McDermott, who is married to Ramona Wampah, a stepdaughter of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), sitting on a bed with someone, probably a woman carrying a child.
This is the second time in three months that a British fugitive has been arrested in Ghana. The first one was Arthur Simpson-Kent, who was accused of murdering his girlfriend and her two children in London.
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Simpson-Kent was extradited to the UK on February 11, 2016 to face trial for the murder of Sian Blake, an actress, and the two children.
Dr Wampah reacts
A statement from Dr Henry Wampah, the Governor of the BOG, confirmed McDermott’s arrest.
“I have received news about the story of the arrest of David McDermott, who is married to my stepdaughter, Ramona, with shock.
“David has been known to me as a worker in the mining sector and has been living in the country with Ramona since their marriage some three years ago.
“Until I received information about his arrest, I had absolutely no knowledge about David being a fugitive of the British government,” the statement said.
According to the NCA website, officers detained McDermott at a house in the Burma Hills, one of the plush residential areas in Accra.
British authorities react
Mr Dave Allen, the Head of the NCA’s International Crime Bureau, was quoted as saying: “This arrest is a result of close collaboration with the Ghanaian authorities and shows our determination and success in tracking down fugitives, however far they run in an attempt to evade capture.
“McDermott was the last man outstanding in a plot to smuggle a huge quantity of cocaine which would have ended up on the streets of Merseyside. He will now be returned to the UK to stand trial.”
Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC, the Founder and Chair of Crimestoppers, an independent crime-fighting charitable organisation, also said: “While those featured as part of the campaign are suspected of being in Spain, the fact that McDermott was picked up in Ghana is yet again evidence that no matter where fugitives are, they will be found.”
Legal battle?
The UK’s Mirror Online quoted a source close to McDermott as saying: "He plans to fight his case tooth and nail and has hired a number of lawyers to appeal his extradition.
"If he can avoid coming back to the UK, he absolutely will do it, and he's got the money and connections to fight it.
"Tracking down David has been a relentless task; the British High Commission in Accra has been working tirelessly with Ghana's Bureau of National Investigations and with the police in the UK in a joint operation that has been swift and successful.”
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McDermott and his gang had earlier escaped to Spain but relentless publicity and manhunt activities, including the display of wanted criminals on digital billboards in towns and cities around southern Spain that are popular with expatriates, might have forced him to relocate to Ghana.