COCAINE IN SUGAR: PORT SECURITY ON HIGH ALERT (PAGE 21)

Security agencies at the Tema Port have suspended their operations to enable them to co-ordinate arrangements required for the discharge of the sugar on the MV Eferm, which docked on Tuesday with a substance suspected to be cocaine.
The cocaine was concealed in bags marked as sugar consigned to Ghana and Matadi.
According to a security co-ordinator at the port, Captain Anthony Cudjoe (retd), the original arrangement to discharge the cargo had to be suspended to enable the security agencies to plan and discuss with all stakeholders their respective roles in the exercise before any action could be taken.
The exercise, he said, would stall certain activities at the port to ensure strict security adherence to smooth operation.
The security agencies had earlier planned to discharge the cargo and scan it to clear any foreign matter and thoroughly search the vessel.
Captain Cudjoe (retd) explained that the agencies, made up of the National Security, Ghana Police Service, BNI, Port Security, Ghana Maritime Authority and NACOB, were meeting on September 3, 2009 to hold talks with owners of the scan machines, make transport arrangements and ensure availability of warehouses for the cargo after scanning it.
Captain Cudjoe indicated that the two floating bags retrieved by the security last night, after on-the-spot chemical analysis, had been declared to be sugar and not cocaine as was being circulated.
He, however, said to clear all doubts, the bags had been sent to NACOB for thorough investigations.
Captain Cudjoe said the three marine officers who were picked for interrogation were still being held, while the other crew members were still confined to the vessel under close security.
He noted that the local agents, Global Cargo and Commodities, were ensuring the safety of the crew by supplying them with their needs.
Captain Cudjoe said the body of the deceased crew member was not accepted by the 37 Military Hospital officials and, therefore, had now been conveyed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for the autopsy to establish the cause of death.
He also declined to give the identity of the crew members, indicating that until they were indicted, it was against international law to mention their names, especially the names of those who had been invited for interrogation.
A joint operation of security agencies at the port led to the discovery of five bags of a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine on board a Panama vessel MV Eferm from Brazil, which, after being at the break-waters for 10 days, docked at the Tema Port on Tuesday.
A Filipino crew member was also found dead in one of the cabins at the time the vessel docked at the Tema Port.