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Driver arrested with 'weed fante kenkey'

According to the police, a travel and tour agent, Kwaku Boateng, has been found to be the person who had hired the services of the driver to convey the consignment to the cargo section of the airport.

Driver arrested with 'weed fante kenkey'

Police have arrested a driver who attempted smuggling to the United Kingdom (UK), suspected Indian hemp wrapped in dried plantain leaves, which appeared as ‘Fante kenkey.’

The 62-year-old driver, Yaw Opoku, was arrested on his way to the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), while possessing the compressed dried leaves which had been tied in transparent plastic, wrapped in the dried plantain leaves and neatly packed in 10 unlabelled cartons.

Addressing the media, the Deputy Accra Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Timothy Y. Bonga, said about 8 p.m. on October 19, 2015, the police received information about an attempt by some persons to smuggle compressed dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp from Ghana to the UK.

He said the intelligence gathered showed that a Hyundai mini bus, with registration number GB 5409-12, was being used for the operation.

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“The Accra Regional Police Command dispatched a team of detectives to the KIA to lay surveillance and arrest the suspect,” he said.

He said, while the plain-clothes police detectives laid ambush, the Hyundai mini bus was spotted about 10:30 p.m. heading towards the Aviance Cargo Section of the airport.

“The team intercepted the vehicle and when a search was conducted, 10 cartons of compressed dried leaves neatly packaged and concealed in dried plantain leaves wrapped in transparent plastic were retrieved from the mini bus,” Mr Bonga said.

According to Mr Bonga, a travel and tour agent, Kwaku Boateng, has been found to be the person who had hired the services of the driver to convey the consignment to the cargo section of the airport.

Boateng, who was then arrested at the Sonnidom Filling Station at Achimota in Accra, later mentioned the name of the owner of the consignment as Frank Akowah but could not lead the police to arrest the said Akowah.

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The police have however intensified efforts to arrest Akowah, pending further investigations.

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