Catholic Bishops Demand Urgent National Action Against Drug Trafficking
The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference has called for urgent, coordinated and sustained national action to confront drug trafficking.
This follows the recent interception of nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine in France through Ghana.
In a statement, the Bishops said the scale of the alleged shipment is deeply disturbing, and investigations must establish how such a consignment left Ghana through legitimate commercial channels.
They said the seizure is one episode in a wider national crisis and referenced a memorandum dated 18 September 2026, in which more than forty Members of Parliament, invoking Article 112(3) of the 1992 Constitution and Order 53 of the Standing Orders, petitioned the Speaker to recall Parliament from recess.
The memorandum, according to the Bishops, placed the Dunkirk seizure within a pattern of incidents dating from March 2025, including a 3.3-tonne cocaine haul hidden under sand in a tipper truck at Pedu Junction in Cape Coast, another cocaine consignment intercepted on the Takoradi-Cape Coast highway, hundreds of parcels of suspected cocaine found in sacks of gari at a Tema Harbour warehouse, an unresolved case involving a flight from Gran Canaria alleged to have carried narcotics and undeclared currency, a vessel released after payment of a partial fine and later arrested abroad with narcotics, and methamphetamine concealed in a charcoal shipment intercepted by Australian customs.
The signatories estimate that high-profile seizures linked to Ghana over the past two years exceed one billion dollars in value.
The Conference said it is equally troubled by the domestic face of the menace, including drug abuse among young people and the corrosive effect of drug money on institutions.
It cited figures from NACOC indicating that intelligence-led operations resulted in 217 arrests and 165 prosecutions, with more than 8.5 tonnes of assorted narcotic drugs and 45.4 million tramadol tablets intercepted during the period under review.
The Bishops also pointed to the Ghana Revenue Authority’s report in March 2026 of the arrest of nine public officers over a large consignment of undeclared tramadol at Tema Port, including five Customs officers and personnel from NACOC, Port Security, the Energy Commission and the Ghana Standards Authority, who were granted police inquiry bail while investigations continued.
The Bishops expressed concern that more than a year after the Pedu Junction seizure, only the driver, a housemaid and a few peripheral suspects have been arraigned, while the financiers and principal traffickers remain unidentified, describing a pattern in which couriers are prosecuted while the networks that finance them escape scrutiny.
The Bishops appealed to Government to treat the fight against narcotics as an urgent national concern, pursuing a coordinated strategy involving the Police Service, NACOC, Customs, port authorities, the judiciary and schools, and called for timely prosecution of persons against whom credible evidence exists while respecting constitutional rights and judicial independence.
They urged that ports, airports and borders be properly equipped to detect illicit consignments, called for stronger cooperation with INTERPOL and Europol in investigating transnational networks and locating wanted persons, and said investigations must follow the money and identify the networks, businesses and financial arrangements that sustain the trade.
They added that every public official reasonably suspected of complicity should be investigated regardless of rank and that Government should strengthen prevention and treatment programmes, expand rehabilitation services and address poverty and unemployment.
The Conference welcomed Parliament’s exercise of its oversight function and said the proposal for Ministers for the Interior, Transport and National Security, together with NACOC, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Immigration Service and the National Intelligence Bureau to be summoned to account for the adequacy of scanning, surveillance and clearance procedures at ports and airports is a legitimate and necessary step.
It urged that any sitting proceed without delay with sobriety proper to a matter of this gravity rather than partisan point-scoring.
The Bishops also said the battle cannot be left to Government alone and called upon Catholic parishes, schools and youth organisations to intensify drug-prevention education, mentorship and pastoral accompaniment, urging priests, consecrated persons, catechists and lay leaders to address the issue courageously in their preaching and catechesis.
They appealed to parents and guardians to stay close to their children and give them moral and emotional support, noting that the family remains essential for the formation of conscience, character and responsibility.
It comes after French customs authorities at Dunkirk intercepted the cocaine, with an estimated street value of €225 million, concealed in a container of plastic waste that had arrived from Ghana on September 10, 2026.
Part of the consignment was reportedly destined for Antwerp in Belgium.
Four Ghanaians identified as Desmond Koranteng Curiel, alias “Paul Kweku Yeboah” or “Biggs”, Musah Attah, alias “Kromo”, Kweku Otchere and Jessica Hartog were arraigned before the High Court in Accra on 16 September 2026 in connection with the case.
They face charges of conspiracy to export narcotic drugs without a licence and exportation of narcotic drugs and were remanded to reappear on 13 October 2026.
A fifth accused, Dutch national Jos Leijdekkers, alias “Bolle Jos”, is reported to be at large.
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