Mohammed Joojo Gyimah reportedly told the police that he attempted to smuggle the substance to Barcelona in Spain but had to abort his plans

24-hour police guard has been placed on a 34-year-old man at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, where 73 thumb-size pellets of a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine were removed from his stomach.Mohammed Joojo Gyimah, a native of Achiase in the Kwabre District of the Ashanti Region and a labourer in Barcelona, Spain, reported at KATH with stomach pains after swallowing the pellets.Doctors on duty quickly alerted the police before performing surgery on him to remove the pellets when he was rushed there.All the pellets have since been removed and he is still on admission. It was detected that two of the substances burst in his stomach, which caused the discomfort.The suspect reportedly told the police that he attempted to smuggle the substance to Barcelona in Spain but had to abort his plans upon arriving at the Kotoka International Airport, since he experienced severe stomach upset and felt dizzy.
He said he came to Ghana from Spain about five months ago and that a lady friend of his in Spain asked him to send the substance along on his return.He said he met one Asare, a native of the Brong Ahafo Region, at a place near the Prempeh College in Kumasi where the said Asare supplied him with the substance to be taken to Barcelona for a fee of 2000 euros, while his airfare was taken care of.He said Asare accompanied him to Accra and on their way to the airport, they stopped somewhere for him to swallow the substances but when he arrived at the precincts of the airport, he experienced severe stomach upset and felt dizzy so he aborted the journey and quickly returned to Kumasi in an attempt to get the pellets removed.
He said he was not successful in getting someone to help him until he collapsed and was rushed to KATH by members of his household.The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kwaku Ayesu Opare-Addo, who confirmed the story, said the Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the police received the information about the incident on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 and quickly rushed to the hospital.He said when they arrived, the suspect was in critical condition under observation at the Intensive Care UnitHe said a 24-hour guard was placed on the premises of the hospital until all the pellets were removed the following day.

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sentenced two teenage British girls found guilty in November of cocaine smuggling

A court in Ghana on Wednesday sentenced two teenage British girls found guilty in November of cocaine smuggling to one year in prison, a diplomat said.
He said the girls are likely to be released in April because a one-year sentence works out at nine calendar months and because the sentence will be backdated to the time of their arrest in July 2007.
The two 16-year-olds were arrested by Ghanaian police when they were carrying 6.5kg of cocaine. They faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.

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Yasemin Vatansever,Yetunde Diya

Yasemin Vatansever and Yetunde Diya, both 16 and from London, were arrested in July and were found to be carrying the drugs hidden in the lining of two empty laptop bags.
Yasemin Vatansever had drugs hidden in a laptop bag
Their lawyers told a juvenile court in Accra, where they have been on trial since their arrest, that the girls did not know what was in the bags and that they had been duped by international smugglers.
The families of the two girls said they were disappointed at the verdict, which was handed down in a hearing held behind closed doors. In a statement they said they planned to appeal. Sentencing was deferred until Dec 5.
The two girls, students at a college in Islington, north London, had told their parents that they were on a school trip to France when in fact they had flown six hours across Africa to Ghana.
There they had what became an all-expenses-paid holiday during which they partied in Accra, relaxed by their hotel pool and visited the country's Atlantic Ocean beaches.
As they returned to Kotoka International Airport in the capital for the British Airways flight home, the girls were handed the laptop bags, which they were told would be collected by a man on arrival at Heathrow.
They were stopped before boarding after acting suspiciously at the airport by officers involved in joint British-Ghanaian anti-drugs drive called Operation Westbridge.
Two other young Londoners were arrested at Accra's airport earlier this month and found to have 3.5 kilos of cocaine hidden in the bags or clothes, or in pellets in their stomachs that they had swallowed

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Sergeant David Nyarko, Lance Corporals Dwamena Yabson and Peter Bundorin

Sergeant David Nyarko, Lance Corporals Dwamena Yabson and Peter Bundorin sentenced to two years imprisonment each for corruption by a public official. The sentences run concurrently.
They were charged in connection with the missing cocaine brought into the country on April 25, last year, by the vessel M.V. Benjamin.
The three policemen were alleged to have collected an undisclosed amount in US
dollars from Sheriff Asem Dakeh popularly called Limping Man who is wanted by the police for the importation of 77 parcels of the cocaine, 76 of which were offloaded at the Kpone beach near Tema.

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