Mustapha Issaka Zico, a resident of Nima in Accra, has been sentenced to 216 months imprisonment in the United States of America (U.S.A.) for conspiring to import heroin from Ghana into the United States.

The sentence would be followed by five years of supervised release, in addition to which Zico was also ordered to forfeit an amount of $110,000.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Karl C. Colder, Special Agent in Charge of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Washington Division, and John P. Torres, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington, D.C., made the announcement after the convict was sentenced by United States District Judge Liam O’Grady.

A press statement from the Public Information section of the U.S. Embassy in Accra copied to the Ghana News Agency at the weekend, said Zico was found guilty on January 25, 2013, following a three-day trial.

According to court documents, the defendant was one of the ringleaders of a multi-kilogram heroin trafficking syndicate in Ghana which used couriers aboard commercial airlines to smuggle heroin frequently from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra- Ghana, to the United States.

The statement said the indictment and evidence at trial indicated that Zico and his co-conspirators paid off airport officials in Ghana to allow safe passage of the heroin.

It said Zico was directly involved in several heroin shipments and directed the activities of previously convicted co-conspirators including Edmund Darkwah, Fred Brobbey and Matilda Antwi, all of whom pleaded guilty to charges in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Zico shared leadership of the conspiracy with Edward Macauley, who was also convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia and sentenced to 168 months’ imprisonment, the statement said, adding that, in all, eleven co-conspirators were convicted.

The Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation was conducted by the DEA, including agents in Washington, New York, and Ghana, and by DHS Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Board and Ghana Police Services, the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.