All but one detective who arrested the infamous MV Benjamin vessel which carted several tonnes of cocaine to Ghana died mysteriously, a former Police Officer has revealed.
The vessel which carried the illicit substance was arrested on the morning of Monday, April 26, 2006.
Mr. Norbert Anane Dei, who was then a Detective Sergeant, with three others apprehended some fishermen who were offloading the drugs from the vessel deep sea into a waiting van on Paradise Beach at Kpone in the Greater Accra Region.
The media had reported that 77 parcels of the narcotic substance were confiscated and taken to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, but he said the figure was underdeclared by the arresting officers.
The remaining slabs which they kept back were sold out to drug dealers, he added, on the Anopa Bofoↄ morning show hosted by Kofi Adoma Nwanwani.
When the drug was processed and its smoke was inhaled by the tester whom the dealers had contracted to ascertain its genuineness, his curiosity led him to try it out too. That was how Mr. Anane said he became “hooked to it”.
The former Detective also revealed that the suspects upon arrest had given the four officers some US$35,000 as bribe to evade custody, but they proceeded to hand them over to the authorities but still kept the money.
After selling all slabs he had unlawfully kept, he later redirected the money he made into purchasing the cocaine because of his addiction, even to the point of selling his own belongings.
“I feel feverish and experience symptoms consistent with diarrhoea−visiting the loo, throwing up with runny nose−but whenever I use the substance, the symptoms cease…,” he said.
Though his three colleagues did not use the drugs but were into alcohol and smoking of cigarette, “they died in strange ways” some after short illnesses.
Mr. Anane is now in a rehabilitation centre called Chosen Rehab, having lost his wife and job owing to his addiction.
He attributed his living to God’s grace saying “I am a miracle wonder and sign to the world”.
