Police retrieve 30 pellets of cocaine from suspects

Page 31: Daily Graphic, March 3, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THIRTY pellets of cocaine and a quantity of heroine yet to be weighed were retrieved from two suspected drug couriers who have been arrested by operatives of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB).
Four other suspected accomplices are assisting in investigations, while a fifth person is on the run.
The two currently being held are Sunday Omowe, 30, and Abraham Yaw Nutsugah, 35. They were arrested on February 19, 2009 and February 27, 2009 while going through departure formalities to board flights for Germany and the USA, respectively.
The owner of Merciful Hotel at Alajo, Nana Ampomah Gyebi, and the hotel’s manager, Yaw Annoh, are being questioned in respect of Omowe’s arrest, while Mark Owusu and Diana Anane, a former employee of the Netherlands Embassy and girlfriend of Kobina Boakye, alias Nsowah, the fifth person being sought, are helping investigators in connection with Nutsugah’s arrest.
The Executive Secretary of NACOB, ACP Robert Ayalingo, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that preliminary urinary test on Omowe, who was returning to Germany after a month’s stay in Ghana, at the airport proved positive for narcotics, which was later confirmed at the 37 Military Hospital after an X-ray examination.
He said within 24 hours of detention, the suspect expelled 30 pellets of suspected cocaine and allegedly confessed to buying the drugs for $3,000.
He said a follow up at the Merciful Hotel, where the suspect said he had been lodging since his arrival on January 20, 2009, showed no records of his stay there.
ACP Ayalingo said the hotel manager, however, told operatives that the suspect had checked in at the hotel on February 6, 2009 but when receipts of payment for lodging were demanded, Annoh claimed someone would come and pay on the suspect’s behalf.
The executive secretary said NACOB had decided to invite the Ghana Tourist Board, the Internal Revenue Service and the Value Added Tax Service to take part in the investigations and help determine the complicity of the hotel management in the crime.
According to him, although the suspect was bound for Germany, the final destination of the drugs was the United Kingdom.
With regard to Nutsugah, ACP Ayalingo said operatives of NACOB and ‘Operation Westbridge’ intercepted the suspect for questioning and that upon a thorough check of his passport it was detected that his previous travel itinerary showed that he could be a drug courier.
He said the operatives recalled the suspect’s suitcase, which had already being checked in, for further scrutiny, adding
that it was during the scrutiny that it was detected that a false bottom compartment had been made under the suitcase, which had been lined with suspected heroin.
ACP Ayalingo said Nutsugah then mentioned Kobina Boakye as the person who had given him the suitcase to deliver to an unknown person in New York.
Surprisingly, he said, that was the only bag that the suspect was travelling with.
The NACOB boss said Nutsugah led operatives to a house on the Spintex Road which the suspect claimed was Boakye’s residence.
He said Mark Owusu was found asleep in the house and denied knowledge of any drug dealings but allegedly admitted accommodating Boakye for some time in the house.
ACP Ayalingo said Owusu then led the operatives to Boakye’s residence, not too far from Owusu’s, where Diana Anane was also arrested.
He said an electronic weighing scale, two Ghanaian passports bearing the names Samuel Owusu Mensah and Francis Forkuo, and other assorted items were retrieved from Boakye’s residence.
He said Mensah’s passport showed that he had travelled to South Africa, India, the UK and the USA before, while Francis was yet to travel.
ACP Ayalingo used the opportunity to warn drug traffickers and couriers that despite the breakdown of the itemisers at the airport, stakeholders in the fight against drug trafficking, including the international community, were on the alert.