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Thizziswhatis
Registered: 11/06/06
Posts: 966
Last seen: 3 hours, 24 minutes
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 Two 16 year Olds held on Importing Cocaine Charges
#7166090 - 07/12/07 01:05 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/12/africa/AF-GEN-Ghana-Drug-Arrests.php
, Ghana: Two 16-year-old British girls agreed to carry laptops and suitcases stuffed with US$600,000 (€400,000; 300,000 pounds) worth of cocaine in return for a paid holiday, British and Ghanaian customs officials said Thursday.
The teens, both students from London, were detained July 2 trying to return to Britain with more than 6 kilograms (13 pounds) of drugs, said Mark Ewuntomah, a spokesman for the Ghana Narcotics Control Board.
They were provisionally charged with drug possession and drug trafficking. If convicted, they face at least 10 years in prison if tried as adults, or would serve the time in juvenile detention, he said.
The two are receiving guidance from British consular officials, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London.
"I think what they did is only dawning on them now," said Beryl St. James, a spokeswoman for Britain's HM Revenue and Customs in London.
What gave them away was the weight of their laptop cases, Ewuntomah said. Ghanaian customs officials found a false compartment in their cases, which they cut open to reveal white powder, he said.
The two had been recruited in London by drug traffickers who promised them an all expenses-paid vacation in return for serving as "mules" — drug couriers, St. James said. The teens left for Africa telling their parents they were going on a holiday in France, she said.
They were met at Accra airport by two men who took them to a nearby hotel and promised them 3,000 pounds (US$6,000; €4,000) each in return for transporting the luggage packed with cocaine, Ewuntomah said.
The night before their departure, the men threw a party for them in an Accra suburb before seeing them off, he said.
"The use of such young girls as couriers vividly illustrates the ruthlessness of the criminal drug gangs involved in this traffic," Tony Walker, a British official who heads a joint British-Ghanaian operation to crack down on drug trafficking, said in a statement.
British and Ghanaian officials began working together last year after the number of drug-related arrests at London airports from flights from West Africa began to soar.
West Africa has become a new drug trafficking route. Cocaine, originating mostly in Colombia, is brought on small planes and dropped off on islands off the West African coast, and then distributed to couriers who carry it on to Europe.
On Thursday, the two girls were allowed to walk freely around the juvenile wing of the Narcotics Control Board where they were being held. Their cell was bare but for two twin-sized mattresses on the cement floor.
"We don't want to talk to anyone right now," one of the teens told The Associated Press. Both were dressed in T-shirts and slacks.
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Stephen
Friend
Registered: 01/25/07
Posts: 156
Loc: North Carolina
Last seen: 3 months, 24 days
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Re: Two 16 year Olds held on Importing Cocaine Charges [Re: wireless]
#7167821 - 07/12/07 07:54 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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damn
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"To use your head, you have to get out of your mind." -Timothy Leary
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emit
Trippy 70'sSci-Fi Movie
Registered: 06/20/07
Posts: 124
Loc: my place ;)
Last seen: 1 month, 29 days
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Re: Two 16 year Olds held on Importing Cocaine Charges [Re: Stephen]
#7167845 - 07/12/07 07:58 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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whoa :o
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yes...
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 xk3m_indica
Seafarer
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 8,883
Loc: Tasmania
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Re: Two 16 year Olds held on Importing Cocaine Charges [Re: wireless]
#7168350 - 07/12/07 09:15 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Coke WhoresLOL
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RIP
Dr. Albert Hofmann
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TMMS
Charlie
Registered: 07/04/07
Posts: 14
Loc: Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
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Re: Two 16 year Olds held on Importing Cocaine Charges [Re: xk3m_indica]
#7169062 - 07/12/07 11:43 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Sad to say I think I would have been tempted to do it too.
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Searching...
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CUBErt
Connoisseur ofHallucination
Registered: 08/24/05
Posts: 1,067
Loc: Southern CA
Last seen: 19 days, 2 hours
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Re: Two 16 year Olds held on Importing Cocaine Charges [Re: TMMS]
#7169452 - 07/13/07 01:09 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
TMMS said:
Sad to say I think I would have been tempted to do it too.
Me too, but I never woulda made it to the security check in the first place... I'd be in the bathroom stall with a HUGE grin on my face (and a silly looking white moustache)
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-CUBErt
 
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wireless
Thizziswhatis
Registered: 11/06/06
Posts: 966
Last seen: 3 hours, 24 minutes
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Re: Two 16 year Olds held on Importing Cocaine Charges [Re: CUBErt]
#7173207 - 07/13/07 11:07 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Two teenage girls from London were transferred to a private cell at the headquarters of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) in the Ghanian capital yesterday, pending formal drug-smuggling charges that are expected to be made on Wednesday.
If convicted, Yasemin Vatansever and Yetunde Diya, both 16, are likely to serve any sentence in Ghana. “As it stands there is no formal agreement [for a British citizen to serve their sentence in the UK] and there are no negotiations under way,” the British High Commission spokesman, Gary Nicholls, told The Times. Sources say that the juvenile status of the girls will be taken into consideration, but a sentence of five to 10 years is likely for a drug trafficking conviction.
“We won’t be attempting to interfere with the due judicial process here in Ghana,” Mr Nicholls added.
The school friends, from Islington, were arrested as they prepared to board a flight to Heathrow on July 2, allegedly in possession of 6kg (13lb) of cocaine worth £300,000. Since then, they have been sleeping on a thin foam mattress laid on the floor of a small concrete cell that the girls shared with two other female inmates.
The construction site that is NACOB HQ showed little sign of comfort as The Times entered by walking across a plank over one of Accra’s numerous open sewers. However, the clean and private facilities will be better than the average African prison which is usually crowded and dirty.
The girls were arrested by Ghanaian customs officials at Kotoka airport. They were questioned after being spotted loitering in the departure hall before checking in for a 10.30pm British Airways flight to Heathrow. The girls are alleged to have been in possession of cocaine in two laptop bags. They are expected to be charged formally at a hearing before a juvenile court on Wednesday.
The girls’ next stop, officials say, will be at a secure juvenile home as soon as a place becomes available.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2072803.ece
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