STATE ATTORNEY TRIED TO FREE 2 VENEZUELANS

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 30 November 2006
A FORMER Chief State Attorney, recommended the discharge of the two Venezuelans currently standing trial for their alleged involvement in the importation of 588 kilogrammes of cocaine into the country, Superintendent Edward Tabiri of the Property Fraud Unit of the Police Service, disclosed this at an Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday.

He stated that investigations later revealed that the Attorney-General did not know anything about what the former Chief State Attorney, Eric Agboloso did.


Consequently, the Attorney-General reversed the Chief State Attorney’s decision that the police release Joel Mella, 35, a machine operator and Halo Cabezza Castillo, 38, a businessman.

Supt. Tabiri was testifying in the case in which the two men have been charged with importation of cocaine which was seized in a house at East Legon, Accra on November 24, 2005.


David Dwarte Vasquez, said to be Grace Asibere Asibi’s boyfriend, and alleged to be the brain behind the importation of the substance and who has been charged alongside with the two, is still at large.


Mella and Castillo, who were in court, had pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy, importation and possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.


Supt. Tabiri told the court, presided over by Mr Justice E.K. Ayebi, that “it would have been scandalous on the part of the Police Administration and the administration of justice to let the two go if two go if we had followed Mr Agboloso’s advice.”


He said it all started in the early part of this year when Mr Agboloso called him and requested for the case docket to enable him to defend a bail application which had been made in respect of Mella and Castillo.


“He asked us to add a covering letter and took advantage of the situation to advise that we should discharge the two men.


“The advice was against the evidence on record so we quickly registered our protest with the Attorney General who also asked us to disregard that advice by ordering Mr Agboloso to give the disregard letter to us,” Supt. Tabiri told the court.


“We had found incriminating evidence against the accused persons and wanted to ensure that justice was done,” Supt Tabiri further told the court and added that Asibi came to the house moments after the police had arrested the two men to demand her share of the cocaine.


“When Asibi arrived in the house, she called me aside for a chat. She did not say that the two men should be left alone and Vasquez dealt with,” he added.


He admitted telling Asibi to engage the services of counsel for Mella and Castillo and added, “Asibi even said he did not know Castillo.”


Supt. Tabiri explained that he asked Asibi to engage the services of counsel for the two because “Asibi is our informant and we needed to protect her at all cost since by so doing, the accused will not know she tipped us of.”


He further told the court that the inventory of the seized items were taken at the Police Headquarters in the presence of a Spanish interpreter by name Osei and the two accused persons and not at the house where drugs were found.


He said the search team had not conducted any field test to establish whether the drugs were cocaine or not and added that there was also no official of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) with them at the time.


Supt. Tabiri said when Castillo was arrested no incriminating evidence was found on him but when his itemised phone bill was requested, the police discovered that he or the user of that phone had contacts with Mella, Asibi’s brother and an estate agent who later helped them to locate Vasquez’s earlier abode at the Airport Residential Area in Accra.