Ghana continues probe of cocaine aboard Guyanese ship

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:00 by GxMedia

(GHANA WEB).-A Guyanese fishing vessel, MV ATTIYAH Georgetown, carrying more than 400 kilogrammes of a substance believed to be cocaine has been arrested by the Western Naval Command in territorial waters of Ghana.

The stuff is said to have a street value of about $50 million.
It had been concealed in the vessel which sailed from Guyana with five crew members, including a Ghanaian.

The crew members are currently assisting the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) in investigations.

The arrest was made on Tuesday, November 19, 2013 following a tip-off from NACOB’s foreign partners who had been monitoring the movement of the vessel since it left the territorial waters of Guyana.

Meanwhile, a release signed by the Chairman of the NACOB Board, Capt Baffour Assasie-Gyimah (retd), and issued in Accra yesterday said NACOB recognised the anti-narcotic drug crusade as a shared

responsibility.

It said when NACOB?officials heard about the movement of the vessel, they started monitoring it from the high seas and as soon as it got into the country’s territorial waters, Navy officers arrested it and escorted the vessel to the Sekondi Naval Base.

It said serious investigations were currently ongoing to unravel the circumstances under which the cocaine was brought into the country and those behind the shipment and warned that NACOB would do everything in its power to rid the country of all drug smugglers and peddlers.

The release congratulated the Ghana Navy, the Ghana Air Force and NACOB’s foreign partners on a well co-ordinated collaboration which led to the arrest.