By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, 22 February 2007
THE initial investigator in the case of the three policemen standing trial over the missing 76 parcels of cocaine, said that the only time the police got in touch with Asem Darke, popularly called Sheriff, the police’s most wanted man, was when the three arrested the fugitive and left him off the hook after collecting an undisclosed amount.
"Even though the three policemen did not admit receiving the money which was in dollars from Sheriff, traces in their caution statements show that they followed him to his house at Community 5, Tema, to take the money," Detective Inspector Justice Oppong, the eighth prosecution witness, told an Accra Fast Track High Court on Tuesday.
Detective Oppong of the Regional Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police Service, said this when he concluded his evidence before the Fast Track High Court trying the policemen for their involvement in the disappearance of 76 parcels of the cocaine brought into the country on board by the MV Benjamin vessel.
The three are Lance Corporal Dwamena Yabson, Sergeant David Nyarko and Lance Corporal Peter Bundorin.
Another policeman, Detective Sergeant Samuel Yaw Amoah, escaped soon after he was granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court in September, last year.
The policemen, with the Tema Regional Police Command, have pleaded not guilty to two counts of engaging in prohibited business related to narcotic drugs and corruption by a public officer.
They are currently in police custody.
Cross examined by Musah Ahmed, counsel for Nyarko and Bundorin, Detective Oppong told the court that Amoah admitted in his statement that Sheriff had said at the Kpone beach that the cocaine the policemen were looking for had already been carted away.
He said Amoah had told the Justice Georgina Wood Committee that investigated the cocaine that all the accused persons including himself, took money from Sheriff and his share was 3,000 dollars.
Inspector Oppong further told the court that the white man at the beach with Sheriff called Killer or Yang Song, a Korean, adding "played a pivotal role in the whole saga."
"Killer and Sheriff arranged for the vessel and paid for it and put the crew on board and it was the same people who carted the cocaine from the Kpone Beach."
He said they used "due process" to get the accused persons to write their statements, adding "they voluntarily gave their statements. It was not taken under duress."
The court, presided over by Justice Annin Yeboah of the Court of Appeal, adjourned proceedings until March 13.
In a related development, a prosecution witness in the case of the owner of MV Benjamin vessel and five others including two Chinese and a Korean, has told the Fast Track Court that the vessel was registered on April 20, 2000 as MV Benjamin and not Adede II.
Mr Eugene Offei-Boohene, Registrar of Ships and a Shipping Superintendent at the Ghana Martime Authority in Takoradi, testified as the fifth prosecution witness on Tuesday in the case in which the six have been charged with the importation of the 77 parcels of cocaine.
The vessel owner, Joseph Kojo Dawson, 34, Pak Bok Sil, a Korean engineer, Isaac Arhin, 49, Phillip Bruce Arhin, 49, a mechanic; Cui Xian Li, 44, a vessel engineer and Luo Yui Xing, 49, both Chinese, have been charged with various roles they played in the importation of the cocaine to the Tema Port.
Seventy-six of the parcels are reportedly missing.
Dawson has pleaded not guilty to using his property for narcotic offences while Bok Sil also pleaded not guilty to one count of engaging in prohibited business related to narcotic drugs.
Isaac Arhin, Bruce Arhin, Li and Xing have all pleaded not guilty to two counts of engaging in prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs and possessing narcotic drugs with unlawful authority.
Led in evidence by Mr William Kpobi, a Principal of the Attorney, Mr Offei-Boohene told the court that Dashment Shipping Company Limited of which Dawson is a director registered the vessel in 2000.
He said MV Benjamin was previously a Korean vessel by name MV Duk 67 before the name was changed.
Mr Offei-Boohene further told the court that registration of the crew was a compulsory aspect on the registration procedures adding that "the MV Benjamin satisfied all our requirements before it was registered."
He said between January and April 2006, no crew member was registered to work in the vessel and that by the laws of Ghana, a chatterer of a vessel is responsible for registering the crew and putting them on board.
The court, presided over by Justice Annin Yeboah of the Court of Appeal, adjourned the case until March 12.
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