Cargo owner acquitted on appeal after cocaine found in FEU

THE importer at the centre of the seizure of 61 parcels of cocaine at Ghana's Port of Tema in May that were concealed among cartons of chewing gum inside a 40-foot container carried by the Maersk Nolanville has been acquitted and discharged by an Accra Fast Track High Court.

The drugs weighing more than 71 kilogrammes were estimated to be worth US$1.9 million dollars.

In handing down her acquittal, Justice Marful Sau, an Appeal Court Judge, noted that prosecution could not provide evidence to warrant conviction of Augustina Abu, who had earlier pleaded not guilty to the two charges against her.

"Prosecution has failed to establish the two charges against her," said the judgment as reported by Ghana News Agency. "The evidence against the accused is doubtful and would be unsafe for me to convict."

The importer had been held with five others for allegedly engaging in criminal conspiracy.

The court noted that the security locks of the container holding the illicit drugs had been tampered with as one of the container's three security seals was found in a carrier bag containing the cocaine. At the time of the discovery, the vessel had been carrying cargo from Ecuador, Panama and Spain, the report said.

"Accused was not the one who opened that container and she could not have exercised control over the container shipped from Ecuador, through Panama and Spain to Ghana," the court said.

On the second charge of importing narcotic drugs, namely cocaine, into Ghana without a licence from the Minister of Health, the court established that the accused had never travelled to Ecuador to arrange for the shipment of her goods to Ghana.
 

Source: SchedNet