Ghanaian Faces Extradition to Gambia for Drugs Worth $400 m

Ghanaian authorities are set to extradite a suspected Ghanaian drug baron to The Gambia to face trial for drug trafficking, Ghana’s Daily Graphic newspaper has reported.

In June 2010, Robert Yaw Danquah, 54, has allegedly managed to import more than two tones of cocaine estimated at $400 million from Columbia for re-export to The Gambia on a boat, but was intercepted by Gambian security agencies.

He’d reportedly escaped arrest in The Gambia and had since been on the run until he was arrested on Monday 6 February 2012 at his residence in Accra by Ghana’s security agencies.
 An investigation in his saga was conducted after The Gambia’s National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) wrote to Interpol Ghana and Ghana’s anti-drug agency to assist in his arrest.

The Ghanaian’s three accomplices, Robert Roselhamid Gazi, a Dutch, and George Sanchez and Juan Carlos Sanchez, both Columbians, are said to be currently serving a 50-year jail term each in The Gambia.

According to the deputy director of Ghana’s anti-drug agency, Nii Blankson, Mr Danquah made his appearance at the Accra High Court on Friday, February 10, 2012.

He is being remanded in Ghana, awaiting the outcome of the application of a bench warrant made to the magistrates’ court in Banjul by the NDEA, Daily Graphic newspaper quoted Ghana’s top anti-drug official as saying.

Meanwhile, efforts were made for NDEA officials to shed light on the facts attributed to the agency, but as at neither press time, its spokesperson Abdoulie Ceesay nor the executive director   Ben Jammeh could be reach for comments.