Three crew members of the alleged cocaine courier vessel M.V. Eferm have been taken to the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) in Accra for interrogation.
They are the Captain, Chief Engineer and the Chief Cook. Their names were being withheld for security reasons.
The rest of the 23-member crew are still being held on the Panamanian vessel on which the cocaine was hidden in 14,000 tonnes of sugar being carried from Brazil.
A joint operation by the National Security, the Police, the NACOB and the Port Security in Tema last Tuesday led to the discovery of five bags of a substance suspected to be cocaine on board the M.V. Eferm.
The body of the Filipino crew member who allegedly committed suicide on the vessel following the discovery of the suspected cocaine has been deposited at the 37 Military Hospital morgue for autopsy to ascertain the cause of death.
A Tema Port security officer, Captain Anthony Cudjoe(rtd), told the Daily Graphic that the other crew members would be invited later as investigations continued. He said the actual weight of the five bags of suspected cocaine found on the vessel was 163 kilogrammes, while another bag weighing two kilogrammes was later found by security personnel outside the ship.
Captain Cudjoe disclosed that the 14,000 tonnes of sugar on the vessel was consigned to Ghana and Matadi in The Congo.
He explained that 8,000 tonnes were expected to be offloaded in Ghana while 6,000 tonnes were schedule to be delivered in The Congo.
Captain Cudjoe said every single bag of the sugar would be scanned to ensure that the culprits did not get away with any concealed cargo of the substance.
At the time of filing this report, security agencies had started an operation to clar the vessel of all items and cargo.
Captain Cudjoe said the security was on the beat and would ensure that there was a thorough search on the vessel. He said the berthing area of the vessel had been declared a security zone and there was serious monitoring currently.
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