Accra, Nov. 30, GNA – A 55-year-old Belgian national who attempted to smuggle 1,457.7855 grammes of cocaine out of the country was on Thursday jailed for 10 years by an Accra Regional Tribunal. Security personnel at the Kotoka International Airport arrested Verhaert Antoon Maria Jules on September 30, 2005. After police investigations into the case, he was put before the tribunal on June 28 this year to stand trial. The facts of the matter as narrated by the prosecution were that on the day of his arrest, security personnel cut open a bellyband Jules was using and found a number of transparent plastic bags that contained whitish powdery substance believed to be narcotic drugs. According to the prosecution, the stuff proved positive for cocaine when the Ghana Standards Board tested it.
