DRUG BARON GRABBED * In joint effort with the USA and Togo

Front Page: Daily Graphic, June 26, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A COSTA RICAN businessman, described as the baron of the drug trade in West and South Africa, has been picked in a joint effort by anti-narcotic agencies in Ghana, the USA and Togo.
William Zabieh, 49, is said to be the mastermind of the major narcotic landings in Ghana, Togo, Guinea and South Africa over the past seven years and officials in Accra described his arrest as a major breakthrough in the fight against illicit drugs in West Africa.
He was extradited on June 19, 2009 on board a Delta airline flight 167 at the Kotoka International Airport to the United States of America (USA) where he has been indicted by the South New York District Court for possession of and trafficking in tonnes of cocaine between South America and Africa.
Zabieh had been declared wanted after being linked to the transhipment of cocaine from Venezuela to South Africa and West Africa for onward distribution to the USA and Europe.
Before his extradition, eight members of his network, including a Ghanaian, Joseph Addae, and Zabieh’s Director of Operations, Jorge Solano-Cortes, a Colombian, had been extradited to the USA in a similar operation in February this year.
At the point of his arrest, Zabieh was travelling on a fake South African passport.
He and all those extradited earlier had previous drug convictions in the USA and France.
They are currently facing charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, contrary to US Code 846, in a South New York District Court.
The arrest and extradition of members of the drug mogul in Togo and Ghana followed a special operation jointly undertaken by the USA Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the governments of Ghana and Togo, with Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and the National Security Secretariat as the frontrunners.
Exhibits found on Zabieh after his arrest included a video of the entire coastline of Ghana and Togo where it was believed that the ring received the drugs for repackaging and distribution.
Currently security operatives are on the trail of the agents of Zabieh who are responsible for the recruitment of couriers and the distribution chain at the lower levels of transaction.
Although information available to the security agencies indicates that the agents are foreigners, it is suspected that some of them could be of Ghanaian and West African origins, as well as European and South American nationalities who were using fictitious foreign names and passports.
The Executive Secretary of NACOB, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Robert Ayalingo, told the Daily Graphic, when contacted on the issue, that the arrest and subsequent extradition of the suspects was a major breakthrough in fighting illicit drug trafficking in West Africa.
According to him, the collaboration between Ghana and Togo which led to the arrests and extraditions should send a signal to the rest of the drug traffickers that they could no longer use Ghana as a transit point.