Drug bust case: Only Customs officers, MPS officials in scanning room – NACOC

The Deputy Director-General of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), Alexander Twum-Barimah, says only Customs officers and officials of Meridian Port Services (MPS) are stationed in the scanning room where containers are screened for suspicious items.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Twum-Barimah said Customs officers are responsible for analysing images generated by the scanners and investigating any abnormalities detected during the process.

His comments come amid recent narcotics seizures and growing concerns over the movement of illicit drugs through Ghana’s ports.

“If not for anything, at least, you’ll go through scanning at MPS, and the scanning room has only Customs officers aside from MPS officials,” he said.

Mr Twum-Barimah said the role of Customs officers in the scanning room was particularly important because they are responsible for interpreting the images produced by the scanning equipment.

He said containers implicated in recent drug seizures had gone through the scanning process, raising questions about how they passed the inspection without the suspected abnormalities being detected.

“These containers went through scanning, and that is established, and that is why we have arrested those Customs officers to explain to us how come the containers went through scanning, and yet they didn’t arrest or see anything wrong with them,” he said.

How the scanning process works

Mr Twum-Barimah explained that the scanning equipment is designed to flag anything unusual detected inside a container.

“Our scanner is supposed to tell you anything that it sees and, as I said, if it sees anything abnormal, it will prompt those who are viewing it at the backend,” he said.

He said officers monitoring the scanner are expected to investigate any alert and conduct a physical examination where necessary.

“When it prompts you, you are supposed to find out what is really wrong and that abnormality; more or less, you have to do a physical examination and see what the scanner is prompting you with,” he added.

Mr Twum-Barimah said the arrest of the Customs officers was intended to establish how the containers passed through the scanning process despite subsequently being linked to narcotics seizures.