$35,000 In Cocaine Soap

Security Personnel at the Port of Tema combing through the contents of the cocaine carrying ship have made a startling find in the personal belongings of the dead Filipino man, Johans Joes. An amount of $35,000 was found hidden in a sachet of powdered soap belonging to the deceased when security personnel went through his belongings. This exhibit is part of a number of others being studies by the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) officials with a view to establishing more details about the impounded cocaine aboard the ship MV St Eferm which docked at Tema from Brazil. Also found were three passports, 2 Panamanian and 1 Brazilian � bearing the dead man�s name. On Friday, 14,000 metric tones of sugar, made up of 280,000 bags were discharged from the ship. These, Daily Guide has learnt, were carted to a warehouse outside the port. The quantity meant for Angola were however stored in a warehouse within the port under tight security as a decision over their fate is awaited from government. The 23-man crew of St Eferm, a Brazilian ship flying a Panamanian flag, was arrested by Ghanaian security agents following the information that the vessel was carrying cocaine. When a combined team of security personnel from the Port, Navy, Custom, Excise and Preventive Service and NACOB stormed the ship, they uncovered the whitish substance which tests later proved to be cocaine. Another parcel of suspected cocaine floating on the sea a day after the impounding of the ship and its contents, Daily Guide learnt, was sugar and not cocaine as earlier speculated. The cocaine found on board the Panamanian registered vessel from Brazil has been nick-named �Sucaine� because it was concealed in the Ghana-bound cargo of sugar. Chairman of NACOB, Navy Captain Assasie-Gyimah (rtd) soon after the discovery told Daily Guide that the vessel came from Santos in Brazil and mentioned that its local agent was the Agency Global Cargo and Commodities based in Tema. The remains of the dead man found on board the ship have been moved to Korle Bu mortuary for autopsy. The 23 crew members aboard the ship carrying 14,000 tonnes of sugar were being kept under guard since the arrest at the Berth Three. The five impounded bags each weighted between 31 and 32 kilos.