Four men have been jailed after smuggling $5.6 million worth of cannabis hidden in sacks of Gari powder from Ghana to the UK.
A shipping container holding the huge drugs haul arrived at Tilbury Docks, Essex on December 19, 2019.
Intelligence obtained by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission suggested it could contain illegal substances — prompting border force officials to conduct a search.
Officers discovered 2,335 packages of cannabis — weighing 1.5 tons — hidden inside white hessian sacks of Gari powder.
The street value of the cannabis was estimated to be approximately $5.6 million.
NCA officers removed the cannabis from the sacks and replaced it with dummy packages – allowing the container to cross the border.
They then conducted a sting operation which linked four men — Daniel Yeboah, 54, Kristoffen Baidoo, 48, Kwaku Bonsu, 52, and Edward Adjei, 48 — to the smuggling.
The NCA followed the former drugs container as it travelled on a lorry to an industrial yard in north London on the morning of January 13, 2020, where it was met by Yeboah, who signed the delivery note using a fake signature.
Officers then observed Bonsu taking photographs of the container and circling the yard in his car – before watching Adjei drop Baidoo off at the yard.
Shortly after the container was opened, the men appeared to realize the drugs were missing and fled the yard in separate cars.
But they were pursued by NCA officers and arrested later that day — Yeboah and Adjei in Homerton, Baidoo in Stratford, and Bonsu in Edmonton.
Searches of Baidoo’s address discovered a 10-ton hydraulic press, often used for compressing drugs.
Meanwhile, analysis of Baidoo’s phone uncovered his plot to accept delivery of the drugs at the yard – which he had rented out under a fake name.
Footage downloaded from the dash cam in Adjei’s Toyota revealed that he had been on calls with Baidoo and Yeboah, during which he said: “My brother, be a little watchful. It is all a little dodgy.”
On another call, Yeboah was heard telling Adjei: “I don’t think the food [drugs] is in it” and “there was Gari inside, they have removed most of the Gari. The people are thieves.”
Bonsu was linked to the plot after it became clear that his bank account had made multiple payments to a shipping company for the container to be delivered to the London industrial yard.
All four men were found guilty of importing cannabis following a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court last month.
Yeboah was jailed for five years and Adjei was jailed for four years.
Baidoo failed to appear at last month’s trial and Bonsu fled the jurisdiction prior to sentencing.
Both men were sentenced in their absence – with Baidoo receiving ten years and Bonsu receiving seven years.
NCA senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar said: “These men used their international contacts to import a huge amount of cannabis into the country.
“Its onward supply in the UK would have had a catastrophic impact on our communities – fuelling violence and exploitation through county lines drug dealing.
“Today’s result demonstrates the NCA’s commitment to targeting organised criminals operating at the top of the drug supply chain and ensuring they are put before the courts.”
