Accra, June 11, GNA - A 35-year-old Ghanaian based in Italy has been jailed for 10 years in hard labour by the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal for dealing in drugs.

The convict, Benjamin Johnson, a.k.a Kwame Amponsah, who pleaded guilty to two counts of exportation of 716 grams of cocaine and possession of a narcotic drug without license issued by the Ministry of Health, told the court, presided over by Justice Frank Manu that he entered the drug business because his family could not make ends meet. "My Lord, my family was experiencing total poverty when I arrived home to visit them, so I decided to try my hands at the cocaine business. Please give me the minimum sentence since I am a first offender," he pleaded.

The court, obliged and gave him 10 years to serve as a deterrent to others and advised the youth to be careful about the kind of friends they associated themselves with.

The facts of the case are that, on February 2, this year, Johnson arrived at the Kotoka International Airport to board an Alitalia flight to Milan.

While he was going through pre-departure formalities, he was suspected of carrying narcotic drugs in his stomach due to his strange behaviour.

Johnson was asked whether he had swallowed a narcotic drug but he answered in the negative. When his urine was tested for narcotic drug it proved positive for cocaine.

He was subsequently arrested and taken to the 37 Military Hospital for an X-ray examination whose result proved that he had foreign materials in his stomach.

During interrogation, he admitted that he had swallowed a narcotic drug. He further stated that the drug was given to him by one Kwame, a.k.a Policeman, to be swallowed and delivered to someone in Mouldina for a fee of 5,000 euros.

Johnson was put under observation by the personnel of the Narcotics Control Board and police and he expelled 75 pellets of cocaine. He failed to assist the police to arrest Kwame, his alleged supplier.