Audio By Carbonatix
British officials announced on Friday that they intercepted another drug consignment smuggled from Ghana, a day after a similar seizure.
Officials at London Heathrow Airport said a consignment of cocaine concealed in plantains from Ghana was seized a day after the biggest cannabis haul seizure from Ghana at the airport.
The UK Border Force said the cocaine weighed about 7.5 kg. The agency found the consignment Tuesday September 25, 2012 hidden inside plantains, within a larger freight consignment of fruit and vegetables from Ghana.
"The cocaine, which weighed about 7.5 kilos, was found on Tuesday September 25 hidden inside plantains within a larger freight consignment of fruit and vegetables from Ghana," the UK Home Office said in a statement on September 28, 2012.
"The plantains had been hollowed out and the skins resealed in an attempt to conceal the powder inside" the Home Office described.
The class A drugs could have had a potential value of approximately £750,000 if cut and sold on the street in the UK, according to British authorities.
It revealed that the "consignment had come on the same service from Accra", but had arrived a day later than the cannabis.
Border Force officers at Heathrow therefore linked the cocaine seizure at the airport to the massive haul of cannabis found the day before.
Marc Owen, Heathrow Director Border Force, said, “It seems likely that the same criminal gangs were involved in both of these two smuggling attempts. This means that in just two days we have put a £5million dent in their profits."
"These two seizures demonstrate the success we're having in disrupting criminal smugglers and keeping illegal drugs off the streets of the UK," Owen added.
On September 24, 2012, the Border Force officers discovered 1.5 tonnes of cannabis, with a street value of around £4.3million, in three separate freight containers which had also originated from Accra, Ghana. The seizure was the largest of its kind at Heathrow in several years.
Four officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) had been arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) in connection with the cannabis.
Kamaldeen Awudu, Wolanyo Fiano, Ibrahim Badoo and Marvin Amon-Kotei, employed barely six weeks ago, are being questioned over how the record quantity of the narcotic substance passed through the Kotoka International Airport. A fifth person, Ben Kusi Asante, had been working with NACOB for some years now.
The cannabis was uncovered in a plane from Ghana at the Heathrow Airport by UK officials.
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