Abena Serwah and Joanne Gabrielle, the girls who were busted at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) with pellets of cocaine allegedly stuffed in their private parts, yesterday broke down in tears when their charges were read to them in an Accra Fast Track High Court.
Serwah, 19 and Gabrielle, 21, both students and American nationals, were arrested alongside Shadrack Ntiamoah, a fire officer and charged together with attempted exportation of narcotics and possession of narcotic drugs without licence. While Serwah and Ntiamoah pleaded not guilty to the charges without counsel, Gabrielle told the court she would not enter a plea without because her lawyer was not in court, after which she sat down to weep and her alleged accomplice also joined in shedding tears when her plea was taken.
The Chief State Attorney, Mr. George Kwadwo Ofori who presided over the facts of the case, told the court presided over by Justice Charles Quist that the accused persons were American citizens of Ghanaian parentage and based in The Bronx, New York. According to him, on September 9, 2009, the accused persons arrived at KIA to board a Delta Airlines flight to the United States of America and went through boarding formalities.
But security officers suspected them of carrying a narcotic substance and subjected them to a thorough searching. He said during the search, it was detected that each of the students had 19 oval shaped pellets of whitish substance suspected to be cocaine lodged in their private parts while the fire officer also had the substance in a canvass shoe he was wearing.
The prosecuting attorney said during interrogation, the suspects explained that it was given to them in Ghana by a certain Abubakari to be given to an Alhaji in the U.S. They were also given an undisclosed amount of money concealed in an envelop for the said Alhaji. However attempts to trace the said Abubakari proved futile and they were consequently arraigned for the offence. They have been remanded in police custody to reappear on September 23, 2009.
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