Ghanaian executed in Singapore for drug trafficking

SINGAPORE - Convicted drug trafficker Billy Agbozo was executed last Friday (March 9) after he failed in his clemency plea.

Agbozo, 39, a Ghanaian national, had been found guilty and sentenced to death on July 4, 2016, for trafficking 1.63kg of methamphetamine here in his luggage in April 2013.

The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of methamphetamine trafficked is more than 250g.

Agbozo was "accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process", said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

CNB added that 1.63kg of methamphetamine is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 1,210 abusers for a week.

Agbozo had travelled by plane from Accra to Dubai on April 4, 2013, before boarding a plane bound for Singapore. He arrived here the next day and planned to spend five nights here.

But he was stopped by checkpoint inspectors who screened his luggage - a black haversack and a red-and-black suitcase.

White, crystalline substances were found in the wall of the haversack and the inner plastic casing of the suitcase. The substances contained 1.63kg of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of about $135,600.

His appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in February last year.

His petition to the President for clemency was also turned down.