Four Ghanaians have been convicted of transporting £4.5 million worth of cannabis from Ghana to south Essex in containers of Gari powder.
Border force officers discovered the narcotic cache within a shipping container at Tilbury Docks as a result of a National Crime Agency undercover operation.
Daniel Yeboah, 54, Kristoffen Baidoo, 48, Kwaku Bonsu, 52, all from London, and Edward Adjei, 48, of Grays, were convicted by a jury on Tuesday, September 3, following a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.
The container containing the cannabis arrived at the South Essex piers from Ghana on December 19, 2019, and was subsequently held until it continued its voyage to London.
The National Crime Agency and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission obtained intelligence that indicated the presence of narcotics.
A search confirmed that 2,335 containers of medicinal cannabis, which collectively weighed 1.5 tonnes, were concealed within white hessian bundles of Gari powder.
The narcotics’ street value is estimated by officers to be around £4.3 million.
The narcotics were removed from the containers and replaced with counterfeit shipments.
The container was transported from Tilbury Docks to an industrial yard in north London on the back of a vehicle on the morning of January 13, 2020, where it was monitored by officers.
It was encountered by Yeboah, a resident of Homerton High Street, who signed the delivery note with a forged signature. A worker at the yard then removed the container closure with an angle grinder.
Adjei was observed by National Crime Agency officers dropping Baidoo off at the industrial yard, while Bonsu, of Arthur Road, Edmonton, was observed orbiting the yard in his vehicle and taking photographs of the container using his mobile phone.
Upon apparent realization that the narcotics were missing, they all departed the site in separate vehicles, abandoning the cargo shortly after the container was unsealed.
Officers were present as the men exited the area, and they were apprehended later that day. Yeboah and Adjei, who resided on London Road in Grays, were apprehended in Homerton, Baidoo in Stratford, and Bonsu in Edmonton.
Saju Sasikumar, a senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, stated, “The outcome of today is a testament to the tireless efforts of our officers to identify the criminal organization responsible for the importation of the drugs and the joint international collaboration between the NCA and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission to intercept the shipment.”
“If this substantial quantity of cannabis had entered the UK supply chain, it would have facilitated exploitation through county lines activity, as well as serious violence and knife crime.”
“A critical component of the NCA’s mission to safeguard the public from serious and organized crime is the prosecution of these harmful criminal organizations in court and the dismantling of their illegal operations.”
A 10-tonne hydraulic press, which is frequently employed to compress narcotics, was discovered at Baidoo’s residence. The men were also apprehended, and a variety of devices, such as mobile phones and dash cameras from their vehicles, were confiscated.
Shortly after the container arrived at the yard, Adjei’s phone calls to Baidoo and Yeboah were captured in footage extracted from the dash cam in his Toyota.
During a call with Yeboah, he said, “my brother, be a little watchful. It is all somewhat shady.”
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”.
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Baidoo’s plan to deliver the narcotics to the yard, which he had rented under a false name to conceal his identity, was revealed by the text messages and emails that were discovered on his mobile phone.
Additionally, it was established that Bonsu’s bank account made numerous payments to a shipping company in order to transport the container from Tilbury Docks to the north London yard.
The sentences of all four defendants will be rendered on October 18.
