The dream of some Ghanaian marijuana merchants to begin 2015 with drug money nearly got them spending the New Year in police custody.
And it was the choice of quick dip in a cold midnight sea that saved them from the indignity.
Not wanting to be bundled into an approaching police vehicle with the 230 compressed parcels of leaves suspected to be Indian Hemp they were about to transport to nearby Togo.
The drug merchants were about loading the leaves into a boat at Adafienu beach near Denu in the Volta Region of Ghana at about 3 am on New Year’s Eve, when they heard the wailing police patrol car.
They quickly abandoned their cargo and the boat, jumped into the sea and swum away. Clearly that December 31 dawn they preferred the unknown dangers of the deep blue sea to the iron grip of the Devil.
The Police from Aflao, Ghana’s border town with Togo were left with the comparatively easy task of picking up the docile 230 compressed parcels of leaves suspected to be Indian hemp.
The parcels stuffed in five sacks, were to be loaded into a boat to be transported to Lome, Togo by sea, the police said.
Aflao District Police Commander, Chief Suprintendent Augustus Luguyare, told newsmen that the suspected owners of the substance jumped into the sea and swam away on seeing the Police Patrol vehicle approach.
He said the Police upon a tip off moved to the beach at 0300 hours.
Meanwhile, an Aflao Circuit Court has granted an order for the leaves be destroyed in the presence specified institutions like the Narcotic Control Board, the Food and Drugs Authority and the Customs.