US cable: Corrupt Ghanian officials aid international drug trade

Wed, 15 Dec 2010

Nairobi/Accra - Corrupt officials have been scuppering attempts to tackle Ghana's role as a hub on the South America-to- Europe drug-smuggling route, according to a leaked cable obtained by Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Citing cables from the United States Embassy in Ghana, the newspaper said Ghanian drug-control officers and local police tipped off traffickers when to travel, sabotaged scanners and channeled passengers carrying drugs into the security-exempt VVIP section at Accra's Kotoka airport.

Ghana, like several West African nations, has become a hub for South American drug smugglers transporting cocaine to European markets - a trade worth over one billion dollars per year, according to the United Nations.

Britain in 2006 set up Operation Westbridge to tackle the problem and, according to figures published on the website of the British High Commission in Accra, has seized 105 million pounds (165 million dollars) worth of drugs.

The situation was so bad that President John Atta Mills even asked for British help in screening his entourage, according to one cable.

"President Mills had expressed interest in acquiring itemisers [portable screening devices] for the presidential suite at the airport in order to screen his entourage for drugs before boarding any departing flight," one cable claimed Roland O'Hagan, the British head of Operation Westbridge, told US officials.

According to a December 2007 cable, the identities of major drug barons were well known, but the government did not have the political will to pursue them.