Gang smuggled cannabis with street value of £4million through Tilbury Docks

A group of men from south east England have been sentenced for importing 1,500 kilos of cannabis from Ghana to the UK hidden in sacks of Gari powder.

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

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.

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."

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.

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.

All four men were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court today (18 October, 2024).

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.

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