‘Cocaine’ hidden in Prado has vanished at Customs – NACOB
A whitish wrapped substance believed to be cocaine, impounded by customs has vanished, the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has said.
The Head of Communications, Media Relations and Protocol of NACOB, Mr Francis Opoku Amoah, explained that the substance was confiscated on Friday, June 5, by a NACOB official at Aflao close to the border between Ghana and Togo.
Together with the whitish substance, a sum of $200,000 in bundles of $100 and $50 bills was also retrieved from the vehicle of the suspect.
Customs officials took custody of the consignment. However, by Sunday, the whitish substance had gone missing.
“When customs took custody of the vehicle, they brought it to their yard, and even as we are talking because of these delays from Friday till now, we are learning that one of the packages that is suspected to be a whitish substance that is suspected to be cocaine, is missing.” Mr Amoah told Joy FM on Monday, June 8.
In the interview monitored by theghanareport.com, NACOB had been observing a particular person who drove a Toyota Prado.
The NACOB official said they had observed that Customs cleared the vehicle at a checkpoint.
But NACOB officials decided to inspect the car based on intelligence. NACOB conducted a scan of the vehicle which indicated illegal substances may be part of the goods in the vehicle.
Suspecting an arrest, “the driver and the vehicle sped off, and this NACOB officer had to, on his own, chase this Prado until a point where the driver cooled down and ran into the bush”.
“That was when NACOB was able to secure the vehicle,” Mr Amoah noted.
The NACOB officer made a call to request for reinforcement but before his commander could arrive a group of Customs officials came to the scene.
Customs took the car and drove off to to their yard at Aflao.
Unhappy that Customs kept the vehicle, Mr Amoah said that the “items could have been protected” if it had been sent to the office of NACOB and investigations would have commenced right away.
Listen to Mr Amoah below:
He made the comments after the Commissioner of Customs, Colonel Kwadwo Damoah, had explained that a joint effort by Customs, Immigration, BNI, Defence Intelligence and NACOB undertook the operation.
Col Damoah had explained that the vehicle was alleged to be conveying spare parts, but upon inspection, they found suspected illegal substances in addition to the money.
Three containers were found with suspected parcels. However, they are yet to ascertain the exact content of the consignment.
Listen to Col. Damoah below: