DRUG dealers put children’s lives at risk by trying to smuggle pure cocaine into Britain inside lollipops.
Hundreds packed with lethal amounts were found by UK Border Force officers at an airport in Ghana.
Around £200,000-worth was stashed inside professionally manufactured lollipops wrapped inside colourful plastic bags.
UKBF officials based at capital Accra’s airport found the cocaine after cutting through the outer shell of the lollies. A 29-year-old Ghanaian man was arrested after the bags were discovered inside a briefcase.
Last night Home Office minister Mark Harper said: “Disguising a deadly drug as a harmless bag of children’s sweets shows the depths people sink to in order to smuggle drugs.
“The international drug trade is a vile business that Border Force officers play a key part in disrupting.” British officials have been working in Ghana for six years to crack down on drug smugglers using the West African state as a route into Britain. In that time they have seized 860 kilos of cocaine and 323 kilos of heroin while arresting 170 drug couriers.
UKBF customs director Tom Dowdall added: “The fact that the drugs were concealed inside lollipops, that would be almost certainly fatal if eaten, make this smuggling attempt all the more shocking and dangerous.”
Source: GhanaWeb
