A Guyanese was among five men who pleaded guilty and were convicted on Friday of smuggling cocaine off the coast of Ghana, West Africa. They are expected to be sentenced on January 7, 2014.
Guyanese Premchand Singh, Ghanian Seth Grant, Australian Samuel Monty, Percival Junior Curt and Ronald O’Neil Miller were arrested in Sekondi in the western region of Ghana, in connection with the importation of 400 kilogrammes of suspected cocaine worth $50 million.
They were charged with engaging in criminal conspiracy to commit an offence, by engaging in business relating to narcotic drugs, importation of narcotic drugs without lawful authority and possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
According to the Daily Guide Ghana online news, the five men were onboard a semi-submarine vessel called Atiyah Ex Alisam, captained by Curt when they were arrested on November 19 by members of the Ghana navy.
They were convicted on Friday by an Accra Circuit Court after Justice C K Honyenugah, a Court of Appeal Judge, sitting with additional responsibility as a Circuit Court judge listened to their explanations about how they arrived in the country with the cocaine.
The news website said that sentencing was deferred after principal state attorney in the case, Essiama A Sampong, told the court that even though the results of the test of the drugs were out, the exhibits were not in court. He also said the drug analysis expert from the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) was not present to explain to the court the results of the test.
Early on in their trial, the report said, Miller and Grant had pleaded guilty and threw themselves at the mercy of the court.
Curt, who pleaded guilty with explanation, told the court that they had been assigned by two men, one of whom is a Nigerian, to meet some persons on the high seas to take cocaine to someone in Ghana, the Daily Guide said.
According to him, they set off from Guyana and met two men on the high seas, during which the substance was offloaded onto their vessel after they had inspected it. He said they took the drugs to Ghana and while in the country’s territorial waters, they were informed that the Ghana Navy had gotten wind of their presence and was on its way. They were subsequently arrested and arraigned.
The website said Monty and Singh who also pleaded guilty with explanation, repeated what their captain told the court.
After listening to their narrations, the judge said that they had admitted knowledge of the illegal substance and their explanations could never therefore amount to not guilty.
Arrest
The report said the ship was travelling from Guyana when it was detained and escorted by Ghana Naval Ship, Yaa Asantewaa, to the Sekondi Naval Base.
The accused persons, together with the substances, were flown to Accra and handed over to the National Security and the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) for investigations.
Sampong told the court that during the third week of November, information reached NACOB of the suspicious movements of a semi-sub marine called Atiyah Ex Alisam, with registration number 000471, heading towards the territorial waters of Ghana.
He said the vessel, sailing from Georgetown, Guyana was said to be carrying illicit drugs. Consequently, the vessel was being monitored in coordination with security agencies from NACOB, the Ghana Navy and National Security, the Daily Guide said.
The principal state attorney said on November 19, NACOB, in collaboration with the Western Naval Base in Takoradi within the Ghanaian territorial waters, intercepted the vessel with the accused persons on board.
He said a thorough search on the vessel revealed 21 sacks of fertilizer smeared with engine oil, containing 414 slabs of compressed, whitish substances suspected to be narcotics, concealed in the hatches of the vessel.
According to the website, he said a field test was instantly conducted and it tested positive for cocaine.
