Drug smugglers imported cannabis from Ghana in flour sacks

The drugs, stored in sacks of Gari powder, were discovered inside a shipping container at Tilbury Docks in Essex on December 19, 2019.

National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force officers searched the container and found 2,335 packages of herbal cannabis hidden inside, estimated to have been worth £4.3 million.

The cannabis, which weighed 1.5 tonnes, was removed from the sacks and replaced with dummy packages.

On January 13, 2020, the dummy packages were transported from the docks to an industrial North London yard, under the watch of NCA officers.

Daniel Yeboah, 54, of Homerton High Street, Hackney, signed the delivery note using a fake signature.

Daniel Yeboah (Image: NCA)

Kwaku Addae Bonsu, 52, of Arthur Road, Edmonton, was observed circling the industrial yard in his car.

Kwaku Addae Bonsu (Image: NCA)

Two other men, Edward Adjei, from Grays in Essex, and Kristoffen Baido, from Stratford, were also spotted at the site.

Once they realised the drugs were missing, they fled the site in different cars.

All were arrested later that day - Yeboah and Adjei in Homerton, Baidoo in Stratford and Bonsu in Edmonton. 

Footage downloaded from the dash cam in Adjei's Toyota picked up his phone calls to Baidoo and Yeboah shortly after the container arrived at the yard.

Edward Adjei (Image: NCA)

During a call with Yeboah, he said: "My brother, be a little watchful. It is all a little dodgy."

Yeboah was also picked up on later calls telling Adjei: "I don't think the food [drugs] is in it" and "there was Gari inside, they have removed most of the Gari. The people are thieves."

Text messages and e-mails found on Baidoo's mobile phone uncovered his plot to take delivery of the drugs at the yard, which he had rented under a fake name to disguise his identity.

All four men were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday (October 18).

Kristoffen Baido (Image: NCA)

Yeboah was jailed for five years and Adjei, 48, for four years.

Baidoo, 48, failed to appear at last month's trial, and Bonsu fled the jurisdiction prior to sentencing.

Both men were sentenced in their absence – Baidoo received 10 years, and Bonsu seven years.

Work is ongoing to find the two and return them to custody to serve their sentences, the NCA said.

NCA senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar said: "These men used their international contacts to import a huge amount of cannabis into the country.

"Its onward supply in the UK would have had a catastrophic impact on our communities, fuelling violence and exploitation through county lines drug dealing.”