Man jailed 10 years for swallowing narcotic drugs at KIA

A man arrested at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) after confessing to the Narcotics Control Commission officers of swallowing pellets of narcotics drugs has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In addition to the custodial sentence, Kwadwo Ofosu, who changed his earlier not-guilty plea to guilty, will pay a fine of 10, 000 penalty units, equivalent to GH¢120,000.

A penalty unit in the Criminal Offenses Law is equivalent to GH¢12.

The accused was convicted on his own plea by the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo.

He was charged with seven of the eight counts, which comprised two counts of Possession of Narcotics drug weighing 594.8 grams (Count 1) and 411.6 grams (Count 2), two counts of attempted exportation of narcotics drug (Counts 3&4), a count of bribery of a public official with an amount of 300 euros (Count 6) and two counts of conspiracy to export narcotics drugs, (Counts 7&8).

The court, after listening to the plea of mitigation from the defence lawyers led by lawyer Paul Abariga and the non-opposition from the prosecution led by Watkins Adamah, a State Attorney, handed the convict the minimum punishment.

The court explained that per the charges, the minimum punishment for a fine ranges from not less than 10,000 penalty units (GH¢120,000) and not more than 25000 penalty units (GH¢300,000).

The court said the punishment also includes an additional custodial sentence between 10 and 25 years.

With that in mind, the court sentenced the accused to a fine of 10,000 penalty units, equivalent to (GH¢120, 000) and 10 years custodial sentence on each of the seven charges.

The sentence, the court said, should be conservative, meaning the convict will serve double punishment of paying the fine and serving the jail term.

According to reports, the convict would serve a mandatory three-year custodial sentence should he default in paying the fine.

The court said all the sentences on the seven charges are to run concurrently, meaning the convict will only pay a GH¢120,000 fine and serve 10 years for all the seven charges he admitted.

Haruna Moro, the second accused person, is facing a charge of bribery of a public official with GH¢6,000 and is said to have submitted a request to the prosecution for plea bargaining.

The case has been adjourned to April 17.