The Kumasi Circuit Court has sentenced a 37-year-old driver, Alexander Kwabena Num, to 30 years’ imprisonment with hard labour for possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
He was convicted of possessing 607,514.21 grams of cannabis which he concealed in the tank of the water tanker he was driving.
The court, presided over by Mrs Lydia Osei Marfo, ordered the vehicle to be confiscated to the Ghana Police Service (GPS) and the transfer of name effected appropriately.
Consideration
In passing the sentence, the judge said she took into consideration the fact that the convict knew where he was sending the consignment but failed to lead the police there.
Again, she said the convict also admitted to the police that it was the second time he was carrying out the act.
Facts
The State Attorney, Ms Yvonne Adjimah Adjare, told the court that on August 5, 2015, the police, acting upon intelligence, arrested the convict in charge of the water tanker with registration number AS 4604-G at Kodie.
When the vehicle was searched, the police retrieved a total of 575 large slabs of compressed dried leaves and another 19 mini fertiliser sacks of the same substances, which later tested positive for cannabis.
Num said he was contracted by one ‘Koo’ in Yabraso in the Brong Ahafo Region to transport the goods to one ‘Red’ at Mamponteng in the Ashanti Region.