The group of men who smuggled cannabis worth nearly £4.5 million from Ghana to south Essex in sacks of Gari powder were sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison.
After a National Crime Agency sting, border force personnel found the narcotics haul inside a shipping container at Tilbury Docks.
On October 18, 2024, all four men were condemned at Southwark Crown Court.
Edward Adjei, 48, of London Road, Grays, received a four-year prison sentence, while Daniel Yeboah received a five-year sentence.
Kwaku Bonsu, 52, left the area before being sentenced, and Kristoffen Baidoo, 48, did not show up for the trial last month.
In their absence, both individuals were given sentences: Bonsu was given seven years and Baidoo was given ten.
The two are still being sought after and taken back into custody to complete their sentences.
“These men used their international contacts to import a huge amount of cannabis into the country,” stated Saju Sasikumar, a senior investigating officer of the NCA.“Its onward supply in the UK would have had a catastrophic impact on our communities, fuelling violence and exploitation through county lines drug dealing.
“Today’s result demonstrates the NCA’s commitment to targeting organised criminals operating at the top of the drug supply chain and ensuring they are put before the courts.”
On December 19, 2019, the container landed at the South Essex docks from Ghana, where it was detained until it continued on to London.
According to information gathered by the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission and the National Crime Agency, it included narcotics.The sachets of Gari powder within the container were seized (National Crime Agency image).
White hessian sacks of Gari powder were found to contain 2,335 packages of herbal cannabis, totaling 1.5 tons in weight, according to a search.
According to officers, the drugs would have had a street value of around £4.3 million. Shortly after the container was opened, they all left the load behind and drove off, apparently realizing the drugs were gone.
Before the narcotics were transported to north London on January 13, 2020, Yeboah of Homerton High Street signed the delivery letter with a fictitious signature after the drugs were removed from the sacks and replaced with mock packages.
A portion of the cannabis that was discovered within the container (Photo: National Crime Agency)
Later that day, Yeboah and Adjei of London Road, Grays, were detained in Homerton, Baidoo of Stratford, and Bonsu of Arthur Road, Edmonton, were all arrested when the men departed the area after discovering the drugs were gone once the container was opened.
Baidoo’s scheme to accept drug deliveries at the yard, which he had rented under a false name to conceal his identity, was exposed by text messages and emails discovered on his cell phone.
Additionally, it was shown that Bonsu’s bank account paid a shipping business several times to have the container shipped from Tilbury Docks to the yard in north London.
NCA officers found the cannabis-containing shipping container and Gari sacks.
