The Director-General of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), Mr Kenneth Adu-Amanfoh, has commended the staff of the Commission and other security officers for their readiness to combat transnational organized crime in the Gulf of Guinea particularly Ghana’s territorial waters.
He stressed that it will only take committed, dedicated and professional security officers to deal with the issue of transnational organized crime.
He made the comments when the Narcotics Control Commission took its turn to conduct a drug simulation exercise at the Tema Fishing Harbor.
The exercise is part of Exercise Obangame, a national exercise which involved various security agencies such as the Ghana Navy, Marine Police, Interpol, Narcotics Control Commission and the Attorney General Department.
The aim of the exercise was to test the national preparedness of the security agencies in dealing with the incidence of drug trafficking and other transnational organized crimes such as Arms shipment smuggling, Illegal Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU), Human Trafficking, Illegal oil transfer and incidence of oil spillage, both minor and major.
The aim of the Narcotic Scenario was to test inter-agency collaboration, detect illicit drugs and observe how security officers will follow the Harmonized Standard Operating Procedures (HSOP) for Maritime Agencies working at the Seaports.
The K9 Unit and Vessel Rummaging Teams from the NACOC Tema Port Unit (TPU) and the Joint Port Control Unit (JPCU) conducted a search on the Naval vessel “GNS Bonus”, which was used as the target vessel in the Exercise.
NACOC Drug detection dogs and their professional handlers located all the drugs that were planted on the vessel.
Mr Adu-Amanfoh was grateful to the Ghana Navy and the other security agencies who made operation Obangame very successful. The exercise was attended by Commodore Maxwell Arhen, Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Naval Command and other senior Naval Officers.
Operation Obangame also had the INTERPOL and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as international observers.
