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IVY Heward-Mills, a presiding judge at an Accra Circuit Court, yesterday refused bail to Kelvin Sarpong-Boateng, Eric Owusu Manu, Daniel Clottey, Frank Bruno Kpakpo, and Daniel Gyabaah aka JB, the five suspected drug peddlers who had a brawl with the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) officials at the Osu Magistrate Court last Thursday. �This is the judgment. Granting them bail will hinder investigations so they should be put in lawful custody where their counsel will get free access to them,� she ordered. Ms. Heward-Mills made the ruling after the defence counsel for the accused persons had argued that their clients should be granted bail since they were just suspects, but if the court should refused them bail, then they demand that the accused persons be placed in police custody or prison at Nsawam rather than the BNI. She said after listening to the state�s submission, it was premature to grant bail to the accused persons since their detention would help in gathering more facts by both the state and defense counsel. The accused persons, Kelvin Sarpong-Boateng, a travel and tour operator, Eric Owusu Manu, a manager of British Airways at Kotoka International Airport (KIA), Daniel Clottey, an aircraft technician, Frank Bruno, a profiler at KIA, and Daniel Gyabaah, a businessman and car dealer, who are now in lawful custody with five others, are facing temporary charges on four counts of conspiracy to commit an offence relating to exportation of narcotic drug, contrary to the laws of Ghana. The remaining five are Stephen Awua, Kofi Bamfo, and Emmanuel Owusu aka Barfour Gyau (all in prison custody in UK), and Hubert Laryea and Mohamoud Mufuti who are at large. Owusu Fordjour, defense counsel for Kelvin Sarpong-Boateng and Eric Owusu Manu, the first and second accused persons, and Ben Sackey, counsel for third and fifth accused persons, told the court that their being held in BNI custody would obstruct counsel�s access to the clients. �I am praying that you use your discretion as the judge to put them under a national authorized custody, aside the BNI because our experience with the BNI always makes it difficult for counsels to interrogate clients to enable us prepare and have adequacy to mount our defense,� Owusu Fordjour argued. According to both counsel, their clients at the moment had not been charged with any offence so they were presumed to be innocent until proved guilty, so they had to be accorded with dignity without hindrances to their liberties. Principal State Attorney K. Asiama-Sampong, in his prosecution submissions, prayed the court that the accused persons had committed crime under the laws of Ghana so granting them bail would not be appropriate. He said bail submitted might influence ongoing investigations by authorized bodies and would raise questions from the outside world involved in fighting drug pushing. He noted that between the months of November, 2010 and June 2011, the suspects operated jointly and severally to send cocaine and wee from Ghana to the UK on British Airways, using a shared responsibility method known as �pushing�. �Each one of them played a specific role in the transaction from the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and on the plane to Heathrow Airport where those in custody in the UK were arrested,� he averred. Initial investigations, Asiama-Sampong said, revealed that on October 2010, the first suspect who recruited the third, fourth and fifth suspects who operated as �pushers� at the Kotoka International Airport to aid and facilitate the exportation of the drugs, was contracted by Mahomoud Mufuti, now on the run, to export eight kilogrammes of cocaine from Ghana to the UK. Further investigations, he said, revealed that in March 2011, the fifth and the second accused persons traveled to London and met with one Nana Yaw aka Barfour Gyau or Emmanuel Owusu, who is now in prison custody in London and later stayed at Osier Crescent in London. According to the Principal State Attorney, their activities were monitored by both Ghana Security Agents and the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) of the United Kingdom. Through SOCA�s intelligence and efficiency, the sixth, seventh and eighth persons were arrested and have been remanded in lawful custody pending extradition of the first five suspects to the United Kingdom. He said the arrest of the sixth, seventh and eighth accused persons in London led to the arrest of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth accused persons in Ghana. Court will be sitting on the case on August 17, 2011.