Brit denies 'mule' charge

2007-07-13 19:16

Kwasi Kpodo

Accra - A 16-year-old British girl arrested in Ghana says she was duped into carrying cases stuffed with nearly 6kg of cocaine as she headed back to England.

Speaking from prison in Accra, the girl told Britain's Channel 4 News: "There were basically two boys over here who gave us a bag, and told us to bring it. It was an empty bag.

"We never thought anything bad was inside ... and they told us to go to the UK and drop it off to some boy ... at the airport," she said.

She and her friend, also 16, were arrested at the Accra airport on July 2 after customs officials found the $600 000 worth of cocaine in the laptop cases they were carrying.

'All expenses-paid vacation'

The teens, both students from London, were provisionally charged with drug possession and drug trafficking. If convicted, they face at least 10 years in prison in Ghana.

"It was basically like a set up. They didn't tell us anything, we didn't think anything, (because) basically we are innocent. We don't know anything about these drugs and stuff, we don't know anything," said the girl.

The two had been recruited in London by drug traffickers who promised them an all expenses-paid vacation in return for serving as "mules" - drug couriers, said Beryl St James, a spokesperson for Britain's HM Revenue and Customs in London.

The teens left for Africa telling their parents they were going on a holiday in France, she said.

'She's normally a sensible girl'

The Times of London quoted the older sister of the girl who spoke to Channel 4 as saying she was "worried sick".

Speaking from a London maternity centre where she gave birth a few days ago, the sister said: "I had no idea she'd gone to Ghana. I'd heard she was going to France. She didn't tell me because she knew I'd stop her."

She also said her younger sister had been worried about how she had done on end-of-year exams.

"She's normally a sensible girl and hearing all this surprises me."

British and Ghanaian officials began working together last year after the number of drug-related arrests at London airports from flights from West Africa began to soar.

West Africa has become a new drug trafficking route. Cocaine, originating mostly in Colombia, is brought on small planes and dropped off on islands off the West African coast, and then distributed to couriers who carry it on to Europe.

- SAPA