COCAINE MISSING AT TEMA PORT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Parcels suspected to be cocaine have allegedly gone missing at the Tema Port.

This is barely one week after five persons, including one Ghanaian were similarly arrested in Sekondi in the Western Region on board a Guyanese ship ATIYAH which carried 21 bags of cocaine believed to worth $50million.

About 27 pallets of the suspected substance weighing around 19.5 kilogrammes was allegedly intercepted by National Security officials together with Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) officers at Ghana’s main port but the substance could not be traced.

According to Maritime Digest, a Tema-based private newspaper, the container carrying the cocaine was intercepted on Wednesday, November 13.

It said the disappearance of the narcotic drug had brought tension between officials of the National Security and NACOB.

The substance had allegedly been seized from a refrigerated container which arrived at the port from Chile in South America carrying chicken upper backs.

According to the newspaper, the container which was labelled ‘discrepant’ at one of the two scanners operating in the port had been imported by a company whose name is being withheld byDAILY GUIDE since the paper was unable to contact them for their version and was being cleared by a Tema-based clearing agency.

The number of the container is said to be HLXU 6762659 with padlock codes: HLA 5078385 and HLA 0339273 while the National Security padlock was NS13.

It is believed that after the detection of the discrepancy by the scanner, the said container was left at the premises for close to four days before being conveyed by officials believed to be from National Security and NACOB to a popular warehouse near the fishing harbour.

“Our sources at the two state institutions said the consignment of chicken upper back was off loaded from the container and the suspected cocaine taken away by senior officials of the two institutions,” the Maritime Digest reported.

DAILY GUIDE sources indicated that the container indeed arrived at the warehouse from the port on November 16, 2013 and the cargo was offloaded into a backhouse where some men of Lebanese origin were present.