Attempt to smuggle "wee"-DHL staff,student on trial

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday,December 15,2006.
The trial of Roger Ocloo, an employee of DHL courier service and Ellis Tamakloe, a student, charged for allegedly attempting to export 695 grammes of cannabis commenced at an Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday.

They pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted exportation of narcotic drugs without lawful authority and possessing of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.

The court presided over by Mrs. Justice Iris May Brown, of the Court of Appeal remanded them in prisons custody until January 15,2007 for the prosecution to call its first witness.

The facts of the case as presented by Mrs. Evelyn Keelson, a Principal State Attorney are that on August 29, the DHL officials while going through their normal formalities before shipment detected that one of the consignment (AWB4361050536) was “unusually bulky” and so they decide to do a thorough examination.

“When this particular shipment was opened it contained two parcels of compressed dried leaves suspected to be cannabis sativa (Wee), a narcotic drug”.

A report was made to the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and investigations revealed that the shipment was brought in to be sent to an address in the U.K by Ocloo Ocloo.

It was detected that Ocloo used a different route code to outwit the DHL officials.

The prosecutor told the court that the senders’ particulars bore the address of Friesland West Africa, a company located at the Airport Residential Area in Accra but investigations later revealed that Friesland was not the sender of the consignment and that Ocloo had used it as a front.

Ocloo then mentioned Tamakloe as the person who brought the consignment for shipment and when he was also arrested he mentioned one Harry Campbell who gave the parcel to him to DHL.

The prosecutor said Tamakloe had told interrogators that he did not know that the parcel contained cannabis.

Later the police found the airway bill covering the shipment in Ocloo’s house.