An Accra High Court has sentenced a driver, resident in Italy, to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour for trying to smuggle 65 pellets of heroin out of Ghana. Kwabena Adusei charged with possession of narcotic drugs and attempted exportation of narcotic drugs without lawful authority, pleaded not guilty. The court, presided over by Justice Charles Quist, found Adusei guilty on the two charges and sentenced him to 10 years on each charge. The sentences are to run concurrently. Senior State Attorney Marina Appiah Opare, the prosecutor for the case, said the complainants are officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB). On September 8, 2009 at about 0900 hours Adusei was picked up by NACOB officials at Boarding Gate One at the Kotoka International Airport while going through departure formalities on suspicion of having swallowed some narcotic drugs. Prosecution said Adusei, who was scheduled to board a Delta Airline Flight with flight number Dl 167 from Accra- New York, tested positive for heroin in a field test of his urine. During interrogation, Adusei confessed that he had swallowed 65 pellets of heroin. On September 9, 2009, Adusei, under careful observation, expelled all the pellets. In his caution statement, Adusei indicated that he swallowed the 65 pellets in Lagos, Nigeria, where he had purchased them at the cost of $24,000. When the exhibits were forwarded to the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) for analytical examination, the drugs were determined to be heroin.