Court sets 588kg of cocaine ablaze
Gilbert Boyefio
25/04/2007
The 588 kilograms of cocaine, seized from a house in East Legon in November 2005, were finally destroyed yesterday.
With a street value of $38million, the massive cocaine scoop has been the subject of a long and drawn out court case. Yesterday, for the first time since the beginning of the trial, Prosecution tendered the parcels of narcotics as evidence in the case against Joel Mejia Duarte Moises also known as Joel Melia, and Italo Cabeza Castillo.
The packets had been found concealed in paper boxes in their residence at East Legon on November 24, 2005 and have been in Police custody since.
The Acting Director for Public Prosecution, Gertrude Aikins, requested the court to destroy the cocaine after tendering it into evidence.
The destruction took place behind the Independence Square at around 2pm yesterday in the presence of the trial judge, Justice Emmanuel Ayebi, the Prosecution, a handful of police personnel, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Standard Board and the press. Personnel from the Narcotics Control Board were visibly absent.
The Fast Track High Court Six, presided by Justice Emmanuel Ayebi, had shifted its location to the Police Headquarters of yesterday's sitting, to provide the necessary security for the tendering of the 588 kilograms of cocaine seized by the police at East Legon.
The sitting was not without drama, when Kwabla Dogbe Senanu, Counsel for the two Venezuelans, told the court that a piece of evidence being called a 'smoking pipe" by the prosecution looked more like a sports trophy to him.
This declaration by the Defence Counsel set the courtroom into uncontrollable laughter.
He told the court that the object, which is made of glass and a metal, cannot be a smoking pipe.
"My lord, this thing looked like the trophy that is given to table tennis players when they win a table tennis tournament even Azumah Nelson has a lot of them in his house," he told the bewildered court.
But the Acting DPP thought otherwise. She told the court that it was an expert who told them the name and use of the object. She pointed out that the object was just one of a number of pieces of evidence anyway.
She said the object was a smoking pipe and used for sniffing cocaine.
Mr Senanu insisted that the name being given to the object was incriminating to his client and therefore objected to and also its alleged use; he however did not objected to it being tendered in evidence.
He was of the view that the expert who told the prosecution as to what the object is called and its intended used, should come and give evidence to it. He noted that, as at now, the object's name and use was the opinion of the prosecution.
The court consequently decided that the glass jar on which a metal can be fixed, and the rubber hose be tendered into evidence without being given a name, and shall be known as exhibit "R" until the expert comes and give evidence to it.
25/04/2007
The 588 kilograms of cocaine, seized from a house in East Legon in November 2005, were finally destroyed yesterday.
With a street value of $38million, the massive cocaine scoop has been the subject of a long and drawn out court case. Yesterday, for the first time since the beginning of the trial, Prosecution tendered the parcels of narcotics as evidence in the case against Joel Mejia Duarte Moises also known as Joel Melia, and Italo Cabeza Castillo.
The packets had been found concealed in paper boxes in their residence at East Legon on November 24, 2005 and have been in Police custody since.
The Acting Director for Public Prosecution, Gertrude Aikins, requested the court to destroy the cocaine after tendering it into evidence.
The destruction took place behind the Independence Square at around 2pm yesterday in the presence of the trial judge, Justice Emmanuel Ayebi, the Prosecution, a handful of police personnel, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Standard Board and the press. Personnel from the Narcotics Control Board were visibly absent.
The Fast Track High Court Six, presided by Justice Emmanuel Ayebi, had shifted its location to the Police Headquarters of yesterday's sitting, to provide the necessary security for the tendering of the 588 kilograms of cocaine seized by the police at East Legon.
The sitting was not without drama, when Kwabla Dogbe Senanu, Counsel for the two Venezuelans, told the court that a piece of evidence being called a 'smoking pipe" by the prosecution looked more like a sports trophy to him.
This declaration by the Defence Counsel set the courtroom into uncontrollable laughter.
He told the court that the object, which is made of glass and a metal, cannot be a smoking pipe.
"My lord, this thing looked like the trophy that is given to table tennis players when they win a table tennis tournament even Azumah Nelson has a lot of them in his house," he told the bewildered court.
But the Acting DPP thought otherwise. She told the court that it was an expert who told them the name and use of the object. She pointed out that the object was just one of a number of pieces of evidence anyway.
She said the object was a smoking pipe and used for sniffing cocaine.
Mr Senanu insisted that the name being given to the object was incriminating to his client and therefore objected to and also its alleged use; he however did not objected to it being tendered in evidence.
He was of the view that the expert who told the prosecution as to what the object is called and its intended used, should come and give evidence to it. He noted that, as at now, the object's name and use was the opinion of the prosecution.
The court consequently decided that the glass jar on which a metal can be fixed, and the rubber hose be tendered into evidence without being given a name, and shall be known as exhibit "R" until the expert comes and give evidence to it.
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