FOUR NABBED FOR POSSESSING DRUGS (MIRROR, PAGE 27, OCT 10)

From Kwame Asare Boadu,
Kumasi

“I am innocent. I am only a tester and not the seller.”
This was what a suspect arrested in Kumasi for carrying a quantity of a substance suspected to be cocaine told the police.
 The police would not buy the explanation and consequently arraigned the suspect, Richard Semey, 39.
Semey, in his caution statement to the police, mentioned one Kofi Asamoah, a businessman at Atonsu, as the owner of the narcotic drug, explaining that he was only engaged by Asamoah to test the drug for him.
The police said Asamoah was on the run and that a search had been mounted for his arrest.
Semey, who claimed to be a driver at Accra New Town, was arrested with an accomplice, Nana Asiedu, alias Bruce, 47, on September 23, 2009 and has since been remanded into prison custody after appearing in court.
 Chief Inspector Yusif Mohammed Tanko, the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), told The Mirror that the police had a tip-off that Semey and Asiedu were carrying the drug in a Nissan Urvan mini bus from Emena to Asafo in Kumasi.
A team from the Drug Enforcement Unit lay ambush at the Oforikrom traffic lights where they intercepted the vehicle.
A search on it revealed a quantity of whitish powdery substance suspected to be cocaine concealed in a handkerchief and a wallet.
Chief Inspector Tanko said it was when their caution statements were being taken that Semey denied ownership and said he was just a tester.
Meanwhile, the police has sent the substance to Accra for forensic test. 
In a related development, the Drug Enforcement Unit has arrested two men for possessing a substance suspected to be Indian hemp.
Thirty-two-year-old mechanic, Kofi Agyei, and George Akoto, 34, were arrested at separate locations in Kumasi on September 19, 2009.
 Chief Inspector Tanko said upon a tip-off, the police moved into a house at Old Tafo in Kumasi where they saw Agyei sitting by a basin on his veranda and repackaging the substance into black plastic bags.
 Agyei, who mentioned Akoto as his source of supply, led the police to arrest him from his base.
A search on Akoto revealed one wrapper of the substance. He then led the police to a nearby bush where a black plastic bag containing 28 wrappers of the hemp was hidden.
In his caution statement, Akoto accepted ownership of the substance. 
 The suspects have since been remanded in prison custody by a court of law.