A MAN from Grays was among a group of four sentenced for importing 1,500 kilos of cannabis from Ghana to the UK, via the Port of Tilbury, which was hidden in sacks of Gari powder.

An extensive National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation linked the men to the drugs haul after it was discovered inside a shipping container at Tilbury Docks.

Daniel Yeboah, 54, Kristoffen Baidoo, 48, Kwaku Bonsu, 52, all from London, and Edward Adjei, 48, from Grays, were found guilty of importing the class B drug following a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court last month.

The container arrived at Tilbury Docks from Ghana on 19 December 2019, and intelligence obtained by the NCA and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission suggested it contained drugs. 

NCA and Border Force officers searched the container and found 2,335 packages of herbal cannabis hidden inside white hessian sacks of Gari powder.

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

NCA officers estimate the street value of the drugs would have been approximately £4.3 million.

On the morning of 13 January 2020, the container filled with dummy packages travelled from Tilbury Docks on the back of a lorry to an industrial yard in north London under the watch of NCA officers.

It was met by Yeboah who signed the delivery note using a fake signature and a worker at the yard removed the container's seal with an angle grinder.

Bonsu was observed by NCA officers circling round the industrial yard in his car before taking photographs of the container using his mobile phone, and Adjei was spotted dropping Baidoo off at the yard. 

Seemingly realising the drugs were missing, they all then fled the site in different cars, abandoning the load shortly after the container was opened.

As the men left the area, NCA officers were in tow, and all were arrested later that day – Yeboah and Adjei in Homerton, Baidoo in Stratford and Bonsu in Edmonton. 

Officers found a 10-tonne hydraulic press, often used for compressing drugs, at Baidoo's address and seized a number of devices from the men, including mobile phones and dash cams from their vehicles.

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.

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.

It was also evidenced that a bank account belonging to Bonsu made multiple payments to a shipping company for the container to be delivered from Tilbury Docks to the north London yard.

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

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

Baidoo 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 locate the pair and return them to custody to serve their sentences.

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. 

"Today's result demonstrates the NCA's commitment to targeting organised criminals operating at the top of the drug supply chain and ensuring they are put before the courts".