Kwasi Kwarteng of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it is “surprising” that scanners at Accra International Airport can detect power banks, canned drinks and perfumes but fail to identify cocaine concealed in bags.
“The scanners are able to identify cans, but cannot identify the cocaine; it is surprising. The government may not be complicit, but the posturing of the government is problematic,” he said on TV3’s Key Points on Saturday, November 7.
The NPP has called for the dismissal of the heads of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and National Security.
The opposition party says repeated cocaine seizures linked to Ghana show that the country may be developing into an international trafficking corridor and raise questions about the effectiveness of its security and anti-narcotics agencies.
At a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, 4 November, the NPP’s Second National Vice Chairman, Henry Nana Boakye, known as Nana B, said Ghana had recorded at least 14 major cocaine and drug seizures between March 2025 and October 2026.
He said seven seizures took place in Ghana and involved about 3.6 tonnes of drugs, while more than 12 tonnes of cocaine traced to Ghana had been intercepted overseas. He put the estimated street value of the foreign seizures at between US$1.3 billion and US$1.7 billion.
The incidents cited included almost 4,500kg of cocaine found in timber from Ghana at Amsterdam in June 2025, 2,829kg concealed in cassava flour shipped from Tema and seized at Antwerp in November 2025, and a further 1,158kg intercepted at the same Belgian port in December 2025.
French authorities seized about 3.9 tonnes concealed in a container declared as plastic waste at Dunkirk in September 2026. In Australia, police confiscated 320kg of drugs hidden in charcoal from Ghana in April 2026, with an estimated value of US$210 million.
“This is not a run of bad luck. It is a pattern,” Nana B said, adding that a trade of that scale could not continue without protection from officials responsible for stopping it.
Beirut seizure questioned
The NPP also disputes NACOC’s account of a cocaine seizure at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanese Customs and General Security arrested a Syrian national who had travelled from Accra on Middle East Airlines flight MEA 576 carrying 40 packages weighing 46.7kg.
The party questioned why the Lebanese account did not refer to NACOC’s involvement, and demanded the names of people arrested in Ghana and an explanation of allegations that the courier bribed airport officials.
“An arrest without a name is not an arrest. It is a press release,” Nana B said.
The NPP also highlighted the difference between the 46.7kg reported by Lebanese authorities on October 31 and the approximately 40kg cited by NACOC. It recalled that about 70kg of cocaine had reportedly been seized in Lebanon in December 2025 from air freight declared as coconut oil from Ghana.
The party wants answers over Musah Attah, known as “Kromo”, who has been charged in France over the Dunkirk shipment. It questioned how he allegedly accessed the security cordon around President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, citing photographs said to place him within the presidential security circle.
The NPP has demanded publication of all diplomatic and service passports issued since January 2025 and called for the Tema-Cartagena direct shipping arrangement, agreed in March 2026, to be suspended pending a security review.
“Colombia… is the world’s largest source of cocaine, and Cartagena is a known trafficking port,” Nana B said.
The party also criticised the government for not publishing a security roadmap after President Mahama chaired an emergency meeting on September 17. It said an inter-agency task force had been given two weeks to produce measures, but the October 1 deadline passed without the plan being released.
The NPP is seeking a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry with public hearings into all Ghana-linked cocaine seizures since January 2025. It wants the roadmap published within seven days, a joint statement with Lebanese authorities confirming NACOC’s controlled-delivery account, details of the Beirut arrests, prosecutions of officials accused of taking bribes, and an update on Musah Attah’s case.
It is also calling for the dismissal of the four agency heads and an explanation of Attah’s alleged access to presidential security.
“President Mahama is pampering activities related to cocaine and other illicit drugs. Inaction on this scale is not incompetence. It is complicity,” Nana B said.
“The President promised Ghanaians a 24-hour economy. He did not promise a 24-hour cocaine corridor.”
