'Cocaine lady' wanted since 2009

It has emerged that Nayele Ametefeh, who was recently arrested in London's Heathrow Airport with 12.5kgs of cocaine, has been on the wanted list of Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), since 2009.

A former NACOB Commander at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport, Anthony Smith - who said he is very familiar with the lady involved in the trafficking saga - made the revelation on Joy FM’s newsfile programme Saturday in an interview with host Samson Lardy Anyenini.

Smith revealed that Ametefeh has several aliases which may have aided her to slip through the security net all this while until her arrest on November 9/10 by UK security authorities at Heathrow.

According to the former NACOB Commander, Nayele Ametefeh, alias Ruby Adu Gyamfi, also used the alias ‘Ruby Appiah’, to traffic drugs years ago.

He said the Ghanaian lady, normally uses unsuspecting people at the Airport, such as cleaners, to help her smuggle the drugs onboard the plane without raising any suspicion from security officials at the Airport.

Smith said Ametefeh used that strategy to outwit security officials at the Airport in 2009 when she attempted smuggling about 5kgs of cocaine abroad with the help of a cleaner called Daniel Kabutey, who hid the narcotic substance in a trashcan, but was caught and jailed.

Ametefeh is currently in the custody of UK authorities and being investigated. She was caught with 10kgs of the drug in one of two briefcases she was travelling with and hid the remainder in her hand luggage.

The Government of Ghana said she travelled on an Austrian passport but also owns a Ghanaian passport.

There are suspicions she had access to the VVIP lounge of the Kotoka International Airport.

Government has denied earlier reports that she travelled on a diplomatic passport.

NACOB issued a statement this week to say it collaborated with UK authorities in arresting Ametefeh, but the UK High Commission in Ghana has refuted the claim.

It said in a statement that UK authorities had no knowledge from NACOB that the lady suspect was heading for London.