Ghana’s Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has taken into custody three foreign nationals in Accra linked to a massive 46.7-kilogramme cocaine interception at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport in Lebanon.
The suspects—comprising a Syrian, a Tunisian, and a Lebanese—were picked up during coordinated intelligence-driven swoops executed on Tuesday, November 3. The action followed actionable security intelligence shared with Ghanaian authorities by Lebanese law enforcement agencies.
Security sources revealed that two of the operatives, a man and a woman, were apprehended together within the capital, while the third suspect was nabbed in a separate targeted raid elsewhere.
The busts stem from a joint international investigation aimed at unravelling a sophisticated drug trafficking cartel. Authorities in both nations are currently mapping out the local syndicate network responsible for packaging, facilitating, and moving the illicit consignment out of Kotoka International Airport.
The multi-agency crackdowns were triggered by the weekend arrest of a Syrian national at the Beirut airport on Saturday, October 31. The courier had disembarked from a Middle East Airlines flight originating from Accra, carrying the haul packed inside two heavy luggage pieces.
Lebanese Customs officials detailed that security scanners uncovered 40 distinct packages containing the 46.7-kilogramme stash, hidden under specialized insulating layers designed to bypass airport scanners. Electronic tracking devices were also recovered inside the luggage by security personnel, who confirmed the bust as the largest single narcotics seizure in the airport’s history.
Investigators established that the initial suspect had entered Lebanon from Syria via the Masnaa land border crossing weeks prior, before journeying to Accra to retrieve the drugs and heading back to Beirut.
NACOC confirmed the bust formed part of an ongoing controlled-delivery procedure in tandem with Lebanese narcotics agents, designed to track suspects at both ends of the smuggling chain and dismantle the wider international criminal ring.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
