President John Dramani Mahama has confirmed the seizure of cocaine with a street value of over $350million.
This is perhaps the largest cocaine haul in recent history.
The president made the revelation following the allegations by the minority that Ghana has suddenly regains its notorious past of being a transit route for the illegal business with allegations that some aircraft were dispatched from the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) ostensibly to carry illegal drugs.
The president has ordered an intensive probe into the alleged drug trafficking and money laundering activities at Kotoka International Airport.
The President’s directive comes on the heels of growing public outcry and concerns raised by leading parliamentary figures.
President Mahama, addressing the nation via his social media page, emphasized the government’s zero-tolerance stance on drug-related crimes.
“We will maintain zero tolerance for using Ghana as a transit or final destination for drugs or drug trafficking,” he declared, reiterating his administration’s commitment to ensuring the security of Ghana’s airspace.
The president pointed to a major operation by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) which “recently made a significant drug bust worth $350 million”.
The NIB intercepted the cocaine shipment weighing approximately 3.3 tonnes on March 4, 2025, en route to Accra from the Western Region.
Acting on intelligence, NIB operatives stopped a tipper truck at Pedu Junction in Cape Coast and discovered 143 sacks of cocaine hidden beneath sand.
The truck, traveling from Takoradi to Weija, was occupied by two suspects who were immediately arrested.
Field tests by the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) confirmed the substance as raw cocaine.
The investigation was spurred by revelations made by Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, the Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Assin South.
At a press conference held last Tuesday at Parliament House, Rev. Fordjour recounted disturbing details of two suspicious flights that had landed at KIA.
“Reliable intelligence intercepted by the Minority Caucus indicates that on March 20, 2025, AirMed flight N823AM, which is an air ambulance designed specifically to carry patients, landed at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, and remained in the country for five days before departing at 0100 hours on March 25, 2025, back to Gran Canaria,” he stated.
He continued with further grave allegations: “Our intelligence further posits that no patient was transported by the said AirMed flight neither to nor from Accra.
There is no evidence of medical referral or patient accompanying or on board the flight on either leg of the flight.”
Rev. Fordjour accused the flight of deviating from its intended purpose, explaining, “We are reliably informed that contrary to the expectation that the AirMed flight would carry patients, it rather on this occasion carried cargo suspected to be cocaine and cash in US dollars.”
Adding another layer to the unfolding saga, Rev. Fordjour reminded the public of previous alarming incidents.
He urged the government to shed light on the discovery of “twelve 20-foot containers filled with gold bars and an unspecified amount of cash in various denominations” that were found in a warehouse in Sapeiman in the Ga West Municipality on February 9.
