SUSPECT CONCEALED COCAINE IN UNDERPANTS

A prosecution witness has told the Accra Fast Track High Court trying Constable Ekow Russel and Maxwell Antwi, a car dealer, for narcotic offences that Antwi had concealed cocaine in his underpants when the police arrested him.
According to Lance Corporal Thomas Anyekaseh of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, he had gone to the Kata Hotel area in Accra to wait for a friend when he saw Antwi giving something to someone and at the same time suspiciously hid a similar thing in his underpants.
“I suspected him of dealing in narcotic drugs and, therefore, I confronted him and questioned him about what he had concealed in his underpants. I arrested and handcuffed him with the assistance of people.
“A search I conducted on him revealed a whitish substance wrapped in a white plastic bag and concealed in a handkerchief,” Lance Corporal Anyekaseh said.
He was testifying as the first prosecution witness in the case in which his colleague, who is stationed at the Accra Regional Police Headquarters, is being tried with Antwi.
Constable Russell is facing three counts of possession of narcotic drugs, supply of narcotic drugs and dealing in prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs, while his civilian accomplice faces one count of possession of narcotic drugs without authority.
Constable Russel and seven other colleagues were earlier arraigned at an Accra circuit court on charges relating to the supply of narcotic drugs, stealing narcotic drugs and abetment of crime in prohibited business relating to narcotics.
Two of the accused persons, Sergeant Francis Arthur and Lance Corporal George Akoi, were each granted bail in the sum of ¢300 million with a surety to be justified, while the rest were remanded.
The other policemen are Lance Corporal Isaac Annan, Lance Corporal Dominic Ameza, Constable Collins Ohemeng, Inspector Oppong Kyei, and Lance Corporal Tony Adjei.
At the lower court, Antwi pleaded not guilty to one count of possessing narcotic drugs without authority, while Constable Russel pleaded not guilty to one count of supplying narcotic drugs without authority.
The other policemen pleaded not guilty to abetment of crime in prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs.
Led in evidence by Mrs Evelyn Keelson, a State Attorney, the witness said he arrested Antwi at Nyamekye, a suburb of Accra, on March 27, 2007 after he had closed from duty and had gone to visit a friend he did not meet.
He said while waiting at a place near the Kata Hotel at about 6.00 p.m., he saw Antwi dip his hand into his underpants and gave out something to someone, after which he hid a similar thing in his underpants.
Lance Corporal Anyekaseh said after he had arrested Antwi, he sent him to the Organised Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service, where, during interrogation, Antwi confessed that the substance had been given to him by Constable Russell.
During cross-examination by Mr Musah Ahmed, counsel for Antwi, the witness said he showed his identity card to the accused persons before he arrested him, after he had suspected him of dealing in narcotics.
Witness said he did not tell Antwi that he had put surveillance on him for six days before he arrested him. When asked whether his alleged friend ever turned up, he said if he did, he would not be in a position to say, since he left after arresting the accused person.
According to the witness, he did not have a warrant of arrest at the time he arrested the accused person, adding that he did not need one under the circumstance.
He denied that he put the cocaine in the underpants of the accused person after he had waylaid him.
When counsel put it to the witness that he could not have known what the accused person had concealed in his underpants from where he stood, he replied that he could because the distance between them was not long.
“The substance was hidden in his underpants under his scrotum,” the witness explained.
Asked whether any of the people around during the arrest gave statements to the police, the witness replied that he was not the investigator, compelling counsel to state, “So it is your word against his word, since you did not find anyone to confirm that the cocaine was found on the accused person.”
Lance Corporal Anyekaseh said he was not around when Antwi was interrogated and that he knew Constable Russel before the incident, since the two of them attended the same training programme at the Asutuare Military Camp.
When Captain Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, counsel for Constable Russel, suggested to the witness that he had no idea about the involvement of his client in the matter because his evidence linking him was hearsay, he replied in the affirmative.
Hearing continues on July 12, 2007.
Antwi was said to have told the police that the cocaine was part of some 900 grammes that Constable Russel had given to him to sell.
Constable Russel is also said to have admitted the offence and stated that the cocaine had been taken from certain Nigerian dealers in Tema on January 16, 2007.
Constable Russel said when the Nigerians, Sebastian Uba and Matthew Nkumado, were arrested, eight slabs of the substance were seized but he delivered only one slab to the office to make a case against them.
On January 31, 2007, Uba mysteriously escaped from Constable Russel when he had been instructed to send the Nigerian from the La Police Station to the Regional Police Headquarters.