ACCRA, Sept. 14, 2026 President John Dramani Mahama has summoned the heads of Ghana’s key port, aviation, security and revenue agencies to an emergency high level meeting at Jubilee House following the seizure in France of nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine valued at more than US$260 million that was traced to a container that left Ghana.
According to an invitation letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Dr Callistus Mahama, the meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 17, 2026, at 12:30 p.m. It will review existing vulnerabilities, intelligence sharing arrangements, cargo and passenger screening systems, inter-agency coordination, and the use of technology to detect and disrupt narcotics trafficking.
The letter (referenced OPS308/3/26/1344) requires each invited institution to be represented by its head and no more than one technical officer. Officials must come prepared with an assessment of security gaps and practical proposals for tighter enforcement. Attendance is compulsory because of the urgency and national security implications.
Invited agencies include the Ministers for Finance and Foreign Affairs, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, operators of terminal scanners, Ghana Link Network Services, the Ghana Maritime Authority, the Chief of Naval Staff, Meridian Port Services, the National Intelligence Bureau, the Police CID/Interpol desk, the Narcotics Control Commission and the Ghana Airports Company Limited.
The meeting comes barely a week after French customs officers at the port of Dunkirk intercepted the cocaine concealed in a consignment of plastic waste that had departed Ghana. Ghana’s Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has arrested three suspects linked to the network and identified them as local associates of a wanted Dutch trafficker.
The Dunkirk seizure is the latest in a series of large-scale interceptions either made in Ghana or traced to the country over the past eighteen months. These include a 3.3 tonne cocaine haul hidden in sand at Pedu Junction in Cape Coast in March 2025, 866 parcels of suspected cocaine found in sacks of gari at Tema Harbour in August 2026, and a methamphetamine shipment concealed in charcoal that was intercepted in Australia in June 2026.
The pattern has drawn sharp criticism from the Minority in Parliament, which this week put the combined value of seizures linked to Ghana at over US$1 billion and called for a full parliamentary inquiry. The Minority accused the government of failing to prosecute the financiers behind the trafficking networks.
Government officials have pointed to enforcement gains, with NACOC reporting more than 200 arrests and over 8.5 tonnes of assorted narcotics intercepted through intelligence led operations in the review period.
Thursday’s meeting is expected to produce fresh measures on screening, surveillance and joint enforcement across the country’s ports, airports and borders.
By Gayheart Abraham
Source: Mybluewavesonline.com| Maurice Duncan |Bolgatanga
