The Narcotics Control Commission is working with French authorities to obtain further information on the recent drug bust in Dunkirk, France, that is said to have originated from Ghana’s ports.
The information will enable NACOC, working with other security agencies, to follow the trail to unearth facts around how the contraband consignment managed to leave the shores of Ghana to the European country.
The NACOC’s acting Director of Public Affairs and International Relations, Francis Opoku-Amoah, told the Daily Graphic that, for now, the commission was conducting investigations around the three arrested persons to detail their roles.
He said the commission would likely arraign the suspects arrested in the night of last Sunday before a specialised court set up for narcotics cases today.
Arrest
NACOC announced yesterday that its operatives had arrested three suspects for allegedly representing and facilitating the activities of Dutch fugitive, Jos Leijdekkers, popularly known as "Bolle Jos”, in Ghana.
The arrests follow the reported seizure by French customs of 3.9 kilogrammes of a cocaine shipment allegedly Iinked to a wider network.
“The three suspects are in NACOC custody assisting investigators to examine their alleged roles in the trafficking,” a statement issued by NACOC said.
The statement, however, did not name the personalities arrested in connection with the illicit drug trade.
It said the arrests reaffirmed NACOC's resolve that Ghana would not be a haven, transit point or operational base for international drug-trafficking organisations.
The statement stressed that the commission would continue to work with domestic and international law-enforcement partners to disrupt the people, the financing and the infrastructure sustaining the illicit drug trade.
NACOC said it would do that while safeguarding the rights and legal protections of all persons under investigation.
Other measures
Mr Opoku-Amoah further told the Daily Graphic that NACOC was working closely with internal security agencies, including the Ghana Navy and the Marine Police, to patrol the country’s vast coastal borders to prevent such reoccurrences.
NACOC, in the coming days, would also deepen the collaboration to elevate the fight against illicit drugs, he stressed.
