Accra, July 26, GNA -- The trial of two Venezuelans arrested with 588 kilograms of cocaine at East Legon in November 2005 began at an Accra Fast Track High Court on Wednesday.
Joel Meija Duarte Moises, aka Joel Mella, a 35-year-old machines operator, and Italo Gervasio Rosero, alias Italio Cabeza Castillo, a 38-year-old businessman, have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit crime; importing narcotic drug without lawful authority and possessing narcotic drug without lawful authority.
Vasquez Gerado Duarte David, aka Bude or Shamo, is at large. Police Superintendent Edward Tabiri, the First Prosecution Witness, told the Court that he knew the two accused persons because at 0200 hours on November 25, 2005 he led a team of Policemen to search their premises at East Legon in Accra.
Supt. Tabiri said this was after he had instruction from the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to go and search the accused persons because they had cocaine in their possession. Led in evidence by Ms Gertrude Aikins, Chief State Attorney, Supt. Tabiri said he and his team numbering about 13, located the fenced two-storey residential house with a fortified gate. He said when there was no response from inside after they had knocked the gate the Police scaled the wall in order to get into the premises.
On entering the premises, Supt. Tabiri, said Moises opened his windows and the Police signalled him to open the door and he obliged. "He took us to his room on the top floor for it to be searched but while searching, we peeped into another room and found cartons parked in there."
Supt. Tabiri said they opened the cartons and discovered cocaine stuffed in them.
According to the Supt. Tabiri, Moises further led them to another room where they found ammonium used in converting cocaine into crack; KLM cargo stickers; a machine used in compressing cocaine into slabs; polythene bags and brown cellulous tapes.
During the search, Supt. Tabiri said, one Chief Inspector Frimpong came across a bunch of keys. One of the keys was used to open a room where they saw some of the drugs scattered on the floor. He said in that room Moises advised that the Police should not mix the drugs with a contaminated one.
Moises then told the Police that the drugs belonged to a black man named "Shamo".
"In the other rooms, we did not find anything incriminatory," he told the Court.
Supt. Tabiri said when Moises was asked who Shamo was, he told the Police that he would call him on the phone.
He said when Moises called the supposed Shamo on phone, "Moises began to speak in Spanish. I held the phone and told the said Shamo that we had arrested his brother so he should come within 30 minutes with a lot of money to bail his brother," Witness said. Supt. Tabiri said he seized Moises phone and asked his team to be on the lookout for anyone entering the house adding that at that time their lives could be in danger.
"In no time my boys arrested Rosero, the second accused person, who entered the house but wanted to retreat on seeing the Police." Supt. Tabiri tendered in evidence three cell phones that were used by Moises and Rosero.
When the Court asked that one of the phones should be shown to Moises to ascertain whether it belonged to him, he told the Court that "it looks like mine, because it has the same make up." Rosero also said the phone looked like his.
Supt. Tabiri said he called for a team of crime scene experts, who took shots of the premises and the substance. He said they took the two accused persons to the CID Headquarters, where they solicited the services of one Mr Osei from the Institute of Languages to act as an interpreter.
Supt. Tabiri said the Police took stock of the items in the presence of the accused persons but the accused persons failed to surrender their passports.
The Prosecution Witness said they wrote to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to verify their identities. Supt Tabiri said GIS on December 1, 2005 indicated that Moises was of Columbian origin while Rosero was a Venezuelan.
The case of the Prosecution was that on November 24, 2005, a team of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters acting upon a tip-off proceeded to house number 348 at Mepasem, near East Legon in Accra, and met Moises.
Moises was arrested and he led the Police to his upper house, where three bottles of ammonium used to turn cocaine into crack, a machine used in compressing the cocaine, 13 pieces of gloves and quantity of plastic wrappers were found.
The Prosecution said brown cellulose tapes; a filtering bottle used in filtering and sniffing cocaine; an exercise book used in recording the names of people, who had purchased and had been supplied with the drugs and two cell phones were also found. The case was adjourned to Thursday July 27 2006. 26 July 06