Four men have been found guilty of smuggling £4.5 million worth of cannabis hidden in sacks of gari powder from Ghana to South Essex.
The drugs haul was discovered by border force officers inside a shipping container at Tilbury Docks following a National Crime Agency sting.
Daniel Yeboah, 54, Kristoffen Baidoo, 48, Kwaku Bonsu, 52, all from London, and Edward Adjei, 48, from Grays, were found guilty by a jury on Tuesday (3 September) after a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.
The container arrived at the South Essex docks from Ghana on December 19, 2019 where it was held before continuing its journey to London.
Intelligence obtained by the National Crime Agency and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission suggested it contained drugs.
A search confirmed that 2,335 packages of herbal cannabis weighing a combined 1.5 tonnes were hidden inside white hessian sacks of Gari powder.
Officers estimate the street value of the drugs would have been approximately £4.3 million.
The drugs were seized from the sacks and replaced with dummy packages.
On the morning of 13 January 2020, the container travelled from Tilbury Docks on the back of a lorry to an industrial yard in north London under the watch of officers.
It was met by Yeboah, of Homerton High Street, who signed the delivery note using a fake signature and a worker at the yard removed the container seal with an angle grinder.
Bonsu, of Arthur Road, Edmonton, was observed by National Crime Agency officers circling round the industrial yard in his car before taking photographs of the container using his mobile phone, and Adjei was spotted dropping Baidoo off at the yard.
Seemingly realising the drugs were missing, they all then fled the site in different cars, abandoning the load shortly after the container was opened.
As the men left the area, officers were in tow, and all were arrested later that day – Yeboah and Adjei, of London Road, Grays, were arrested in Homerton, Baidoo in Stratford and Bonsu in Edmonton.
National Crime Agency senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar said: “Today’s result is testament to the joint international work between the NCA and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission to intercept the drugs shipment, and the tireless efforts of our officers to identify the criminal group behind its importation.
“Had this huge haul of cannabis reached the UK supply chain, it would have fuelled exploitation through county lines activity as well serious violence and knife crime.
“Putting these harmful criminal groups before the courts and dismantling their illegal operations is a key part of the NCA’s mission to protect the public from serious and organised crime.”
A 10-tonne hydraulic press, often used for compressing drugs, was found at Baidoo’s address and a number of devices were seized from the men, including mobile phones and dash cams from their vehicles.
Footage downloaded from the dash cam in Adjei’s Toyota picked up his phone calls to Baidoo and Yeboah shortly after the container arrived at the yard.
During a call with Yeboah, he said, “my brother, be a little watchful. It is all a little dodgy”.
Yeboah was also picked up on later calls telling Adjei, “I don’t think the food [drugs] is in it” and “there was Gari inside, they have removed most of the Gari. The people are thieves”.
Text messages and e-mails found on Baidoo’s mobile phone uncovered his plot to take delivery of the drugs at the yard, which he had rented under a fake name to disguise his identity.
It was also evidenced that a bank account belonging to Bonsu made multiple payments to a shipping company for the container to be delivered from Tilbury Docks to the north London yard.
All four men will be sentenced on 18 October 2024.
Source: Asaase radio