Swissport Drug Bust: Court grants GH₵52m bail to 4 accused persons

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An Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Her Ladyship Sedinam Awo Kwadam, has granted a bail of thirteen million Ghana cedis (GHS 13,000,000) to each of the four accused persons standing trial for allegedly attempting to transport suspected cocaine at the Kotoka International Airport’s Swissport cargo terminal.

The accused persons have also been charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.

According to the facts, on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, authorized officers stationed at the Export Section of the Swissport Cargo Terminal, during a routine physical examination of outbound cargoes destined for Brussels in Belgium, intercepted three packages made of wooden boxes on suspicion of concealing narcotic drugs.

When the boxes were emptied of their contents and scanned, the analyzed images indicated the presence of a false compartment in the boxes.

These compartments were deconstructed and found to contain a total of 73 compressed slabs of suspected narcotics. When cut open, a sampled slab revealed a whitish powdery substance, which field-tested positive for cocaine. All four suspects were arrested on April 23, 2025, and taken to the NACOC Headquarters.

All four accused persons have denied knowledge of the 73 parcels of cocaine.

The thirteen million Ghana cedis bail condition for each of them comes with four sureties, one to be justified with a one million Ghana cedi worth of landed property.

All the sureties, according to the court order, must be civil servants with net monthly earnings of not less than five thousand Ghana cedis. The accused persons have also been prohibited from acquiring new passports.

The court has thus ordered NACOC officials to take their biodata and submit the same to passport offices nationwide in order for the accused persons to be flagged whenever they attempt to acquire passports.

The accused persons have been ordered to immediately submit their passports to the court registry.

Additionally, the accused persons have been placed on a stop list at all exit points of the country, with an order not to move out of the jurisdiction without the express permission of the court. They have also been ordered to report to NACOC twice every week.

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