On 18 October 2024 Southwark Crown Court sentenced four men to a combined 26 years in prison for smuggling about 1.5 tonnes of cannabis from Ghana into Britain hidden in sacks of gari powder.[1] Daniel Yeboah received five years and Edward Adjei four years.[1] Kristoffen Baidoo, who had failed to appear at the September trial, received ten years and Kwaku Bonsu seven years, both in their absence, and work was under way to find them and return them to custody.[2][1]
Border Force officers found the drugs in a shipping container at Tilbury Docks after a National Crime Agency sting, acting on intelligence from the agency and Ghana’s Narcotics Control Commission.[2][1] A search confirmed 2,335 packages of herbal cannabis weighing a combined 1.5 tonnes inside white hessian sacks of gari powder.[2][1] The container had arrived from Ghana on 19 December 2019 and was held before officers replaced the drugs with dummy packages and let it travel to a north London yard on 13 January 2020, where Yeboah signed for the delivery with a fake signature.[1] All four were arrested later that day.[2][1]
Officers estimated the street value at about 4.3 million pounds.[1] The NCA’s senior investigating officer said the men had used international contacts to import a huge amount of cannabis whose onward supply would have fuelled violence and exploitation through county-lines dealing.[1]
