Nearly Four Tonnes of Cocaine Left Ghana for France. Nobody in Accra Has Commented
GHANA · POLITICS
Key Facts
- —The seizure About 3.9 tonnes of cocaine in 167 packages, declared as plastic waste, found at Dunkirk on 7 September.
- —The value Estimated at about US$261 million by investigators. No arrests have been made in France.
- —The route The container left Ghana and was routed to Antwerp, with a delivery address in the Netherlands.
- —The claim An opposition MP put seizures linked to the country above US$1 billion in under two years.
- —The arithmetic On verified figures that total is nearer US$980 million, and possibly nearer US$830 million.
- —The catch Three days after the seizure was announced, no Ghanaian authority had said anything at all.
The seizure is real and large. The billion-dollar figure attached to it in Accra is one politician’s arithmetic, and on verified values it does not reach a billion.
French investigators found about 3.9 tonnes of cocaine at Dunkirk on 7 September 2026, in a container that had left Ghana. The load was in 167 packages hidden inside a declared cargo of plastic waste.
The estimated value is 225 million euros, roughly US$261 million. The container had been routed to Antwerp with a delivery address in the Netherlands.
A customs surveillance brigade at Dunkirk made the seizure. It was announced on 10 September by the national prosecutor’s office for organised crime, and the anti-narcotics office is investigating.
No arrests have been made. That is the whole of the confirmed record from the French side.
Note two errors that have travelled with this story. Several outlets date the seizure to 11 September.
At least one has described the shipment as bound for Ghana rather than from it. Both are wrong.
What an Opposition MP Said
The political reaction in Accra came from one man. Reverend John Ntim Fordjour is the member of parliament for Assin South and sits for the opposition New Patriotic Party.
He is the ranking member of parliament’s defence and interior committee, a position he has held since March 2025. He is a former deputy minister of education.
His remarks came in three forms rather than at a press conference. There was a social media post and a television interview on 11 September.
A written statement followed through the opposition caucus. The quotations in circulation come from all three.
His line was that the country’s image is sinking. He said it is becoming one too many.
The least of the worries, he added, are the small quantities the narcotics commission puts out. His target was the scale of what gets through.
His sharpest point was about the courts. He asked where the high-profile prosecutions are, given the high-profile cases.
He also said the country’s reputation cannot be held hostage to official silence or political convenience. That is the charge the government has not answered.
The Billion-Dollar Figure Does Not Hold
Fordjour’s written statement added five seizures together to reach more than US$1 billion in under two years. The total is his own arithmetic and no institution has published anything like it.
His list begins with 3.3 tonnes at Pedu Junction in March 2025, valued at US$350 million. Next come 120 slabs on the Takoradi to Cape Coast road at US$150 million.
Then 866 parcels at Tema in August 2026 at US$6.9 million. Then 320 kilograms of methamphetamine in Australia at US$261 million, and the French seizure at US$260 million.
The Australian figure is the problem. The Australian Federal Police valued that seizure at 296 million Australian dollars, which is about US$212 million today, not US$261 million.
Substitute the verified value and the total falls to roughly US$980 million. It does not reach a billion.
There is a second difficulty. The first two items both occurred on 4 March 2025 on the same stretch of road.
They may be one seizure reported twice. The published accounts differ on the vehicle, the quantity and the suspects, so neither reading can be confirmed.
If they are, the total is nearer US$830 million. Note also that these are street values, which are retail estimates and routinely far above wholesale.
And four of the five were seizures by authorities, including Ghana’s own. That reads as an enforcement record as easily as a failure.
The Australian Case Cuts the Other Way
The methamphetamine case is worth setting out properly because it is often cited against the country. Australian border officials seized 320 kilograms hidden in bags of charcoal at Port Botany in Sydney on 20 April 2026.
The shipment came from Ghana and the federal police announced charges on 18 June. A British woman and an Adelaide couple were charged.
But the lead organiser was arrested in Ghana, by the narcotics commission, after three months of surveillance. Its director general said his officers slept away from their homes for that period.
The deputy director general also conceded that certain procedures were not duly followed at the port. That is a candid admission and it belongs in any fair account.
What the Prosecution Record Actually Shows
The claim that there are no prosecutions is too strong. What is missing is a completed conviction of anyone senior.
In the Pedu Junction case two men were remanded in April 2025 and four more were arrested and bailed by July. Two prime suspects remain at large.
That trial was adjourned on 30 April 2026, a June hearing was lost to flooding, and no new date has been reported. Three men were arrested over the Tema seizure in August, including a Dutch national.
The strongest part of Fordjour’s argument concerns the road seizure. Ghanaian reporting named the alleged owner as a former parliamentary candidate for the governing party.
No charge, trial or outcome has been reported in that case at all. It has simply left the record.
On volume, the interior minister said in August that more than 8,500 kilograms of narcotics had been seized in 20 months. He also cited 45.4 million tramadol tablets, 217 arrests and 165 prosecutions.
That answers a different question from the one being asked. Case volume is not the same as senior figures in the dock.
The Silence, and the Speaker’s Record
Three days after the French announcement, no Ghanaian authority had responded. Nothing from the narcotics commission, the interior ministry, the attorney general or the presidency.
Parliament had not taken the matter up either. That silence is the most defensible criticism available, and it is not the one the headlines have run.
Fordjour’s own record also belongs in the account. In April 2025 he alleged that two aircraft had landed at Accra’s airport carrying suspicious cargo suspected to be cocaine and cash.
The president ordered an investigation and the government spokesman called the claims reckless, baseless and dangerous. Inspections by four agencies found no illegal substances, and one aircraft was explained by a tyre burst and a landing gear fault.
The fact-checking organisation Dubawa rated the allegations unsubstantiated. It also found the government’s account of the flight routing did not match tracking data, so neither side emerged clean.
The Wider Picture
The underlying concern is real and documented. Researchers at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime place the country in a central hub of the West African cocaine trade.
That grouping also covers Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo and Nigeria. Regional seizures reached about 30,000 kilograms across 2023 and 2024, after years of very little.
The phrase cocaine coast, which Fordjour used, is his own. Researchers use terms like central hub and cocaine corridor, and the European drug agency does not name Ghana at all.
One seizure absent from his list is instructive. In June 2025 some 4.5 tonnes were intercepted at Tema itself, bound for Amsterdam.
European seizures of cocaine actually fell in 2024, though they remain far above the level of a decade earlier. The route is under pressure at both ends.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What was seized in France?
About 3.9 tonnes of cocaine in 167 packages, hidden in a declared cargo of plastic waste, found at Dunkirk on 7 September 2026 and valued at roughly US$261 million.
Was anyone arrested?
No. The prosecutor’s office for organised crime announced the seizure on 10 September and the anti-narcotics office is investigating.
Is the billion-dollar figure accurate?
No. It is one MP’s own tally, and substituting the Australian police’s own valuation brings it to about US$980 million.
Has the government responded?
Not as of 13 September. No statement has been published by the narcotics commission, the interior ministry, the attorney general or the presidency.
Are there prosecutions?
Yes, several, including cases from Pedu Junction and Tema. What is absent is any completed conviction of a senior figure.
Sources: Parquet national anticriminalité organisée, French customs, Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force, Graphic Online, MyJoyOnline, Dubawa Ghana, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, UNODC, EUDA.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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