North and east London men sentenced for drug importation

The National Crime Agency (NCA) linked four men to the huge drugs quantity after it was discovered inside a shipping container at Tilbury Docks, Essex. 

Daniel Yeboah, 54, of High Street, Hackney, Kristoffen Baidoo, 48, of Stratford, Kwaku Bonsu, 52, of Arthur Road, Edmonton, and Edward Kwame Adjei of London Road, Grays, were found guilty of importing the class B drug last month.

The finding followed a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. 

The drug-filled container arrived to the docks from Ghana on December 19, 2019, and was searched after intelligence suggested it contained narcotics. 

Packages of the drug found inside the shipping container (Image: NCA) Inside, 2,335 packages of herbal cannabis were found hidden inside sacks of cassava root powder, weighing a total of 1.5 tonnes. 

The estimated street value of the drugs would have been approximately £4.3 million. 

The drugs were removed from the sacks and replaced with dummy packages. 

The container of prop packages was tracked moving from the docks to an industrial yard in north London on the back of a lorry on January 13, 2020. 

The white sacks of Gari that were concealing the cannabis (Image: NCA) Yeboah signed the delivery note for the contents with a fake signature before a yard worker removed the container seal with an angle grinder. 

Bonsu was seen circling the industrial yard in his car and taking photographs of the shipping container on his phone. 

Adjei was spotted by NCA officers dropping Baidoo off at the yard. 

Inside one of the sacks, where drug wraps can be seen (Image: NCA) The group appeared to realise the drugs were missing and then fled from the site in different cars, abandoning the load. 

The men were followed by NCA officers and arrested later that day.

At Baidoo's home address a ten-tonne hydraulic press, often used to compress drugs, was found during a search of the property. 

Several devices were seized from the men, including mobile phones and dash cams. 

Kristoffen Yaw Baidoo of Stratford (Image: NCA) In one of the dash cam clips from Adjei's car, phone calls to Baidoo and Yeboah had been picked up. 

He was heard speaking with Yeboah, saying: "My brother, be a little watchful. It is all a little dodgy."

Yeboah was recorded on later calls telling Adjei: ""I don't think the food [drugs] is in it" and, "there was Gari inside, they have removed most of the Gari. The people are thieves."

Edward Kwame Adjei from Grays (Image: NCA) The scheme to receive the drug delivery at the yard was uncovered from text messages and e-mails on Baidoo's phone, which revealed he had rented the yard under a fake name. 

Payments made to a shipping company for the delivery of the container to the yard site were linked to a bank account held my Bonsu. 

All four men were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court today (October 18). 

Kwaku Addae Bonsu of Edmonton (Image: NCA) Yeboah was handed a five year jail sentence after being charged with being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a Class B drug. 

Adjei received a four year prison sentence for the same charge. 

Baidoo failed to appear at the trial last month, and Bonsu fled the jurisdiction prior to sentencing. 

Daniel Yeboah from Hackney (Image: NCA) They were both sentenced in their absence, with a ten year sentence ordered for Baidoo, and a seven year sentence ordered for Bonsu. 

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Work is ongoing to locate the pair and return them to custody to carry out their sentences. 

NCA senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar said: "These men used their international contacts to import a huge amount of cannabis into the country.

"Its onward supply in the UK would have had a catastrophic impact on our communities, fuelling violence and exploitation through county lines drug dealing."