By: OrePulse

Six people, including four Ghana Revenue Authority officers, have been remanded in custody over a drug-trafficking operation in which roughly 3.9 metric tons of suspected narcotics moved through Ghana's Tema Port before being seized in France.

The accused appeared before the Kwabenya Circuit Court in Accra on Thursday, September 17, 2026, where prosecutors successfully opposed bail. Those charged include four Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) officers along with freight forwarders tied to the shipment: Francis Narh Amanor, Frank Adu-Boahen, Togbe Agbeti, Andrews Tetteh Amponsah, Daniel Laryea and Helena Akua Denkyi. Prosecutors charged all six with conspiracy to export narcotic drugs and with exporting narcotics without a valid license. The four GRA officers face an added abetment charge.

French authorities discovered the narcotics concealed inside four 40-foot freight containers — identified by the numbers SELU4549480, FFAU2242304, MSDU5642699 and SELU4809801 — after the containers arrived in France from Ghana.

According to prosecutors, the containers passed through Tema Port's required customs scan before departure, and the resulting scan images showed clear structural irregularities. Despite that, the shipment moved ahead to export without a secondary physical check.

Court documents say Adu-Boahen, one of the GRA officers, gave his system login credentials to co-defendants so they could carry out scan reviews that were his responsibility alone. Investigators have since identified him as the shipment's beneficial owner. He was arrested at a hideout in Tema Community 19 on September 16 and told investigators under caution that he packed the cargo at a warehouse in Tema Community 12 with help from Amanor.

Amanor, managing director of Fresna Commodities Ltd., was taken into custody on September 15 after customs' digital tracking data tied the export paperwork to his company. He has said he thought the shipment contained recycled plastic flakes and pointed to Adu-Boahen as the container's real owner.

The court adjourned the case to September 24, 2026. Investigators are continuing to examine how the flagged scan results were overridden and why border controls failed to stop the shipment before it left the port.