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Court jails businessman 10 years drugs
deal
Accra, June 11, GNA – A 35-year-old
Ghanaian based in Italy has been jailed for 10 years in hard
labour by the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal for dealing in
drugs.
The convict, Benjamin Johnson, a.k.a Kwame Amponsah, who
pleaded guilty to two counts of exportation of 716 grams of
cocaine and possession of a narcotic drug without license
issued by the Ministry of Health, told the court, presided
over by Justice Frank Manu that he entered the drug business
because his family could not make ends meet.
“My Lord, my family was experiencing total poverty when I
arrived home to visit them, so I decided to try my hands at
the cocaine business. Please give me the minimum sentence
since I am a first offender,” he pleaded.
The court, obliged and gave him 10 years to serve as a
deterrent to others and advised the youth to be careful
about the kind of friends they associated themselves with.
The facts of the case are that, on February 2, this year,
Johnson arrived at the Kotoka International Airport to board
an Alitalia flight to Milan.
While he was going through pre-departure formalities, he was
suspected of carrying narcotic drugs in his stomach due to
his strange behaviour.
Johnson was asked whether he had swallowed a narcotic drug
but he answered in the negative. When his urine was tested
for narcotic drug it proved positive for cocaine.
He was subsequently arrested and taken to the 37 Military
Hospital for an X-ray examination whose result proved that
he had foreign materials in his stomach.
During interrogation, he admitted that he had swallowed a
narcotic drug. He further stated that the drug was given to
him by one Kwame, a.k.a Policeman, to be swallowed and
delivered to someone in Mouldina for a fee of 5,000 euros.
Johnson was put under observation by the personnel of the
Narcotics Control Board and police and he expelled 75
pellets of cocaine. He failed to assist the police to arrest
Kwame, his alleged supplier.
GNA
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