Kofi Tonto Questions Ghana’s Role in Lebanon’s 40kg Cocaine Bust

byMavis FanteviNovember 2, 20260 The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Spokesperson on Employment and Jobs, Kofi Tonto, has questioned the government’s claim that Ghana collaborated with Lebanese authorities in the arrest of a Syrian national found with about 40 kilogrammes of suspected cocaine at Beirut airport.

He said the Lebanese authorities had not acknowledged Ghana’s involvement in their public account of the operation, despite the government’s insistence that Ghanaian security agencies played a role in the arrest.

Speaking on the matter in an interview on JoyNews, Mr Tonto questioned why Ghana was not recognised in an operation Lebanon had described as the biggest cocaine seizure in the history of its airport.

“For Lebanon, it says that this is the biggest cocaine bust they have had in their history. The biggest. How could you have the biggest cocaine bust and you had a collaborator? Yet, they did not acknowledge that collaborator at all,” he said.

He argued that Lebanese authorities had instead highlighted the role of their internal security agencies in the operation, raising questions about the extent of Ghana’s contribution.

Mr Tonto also disputed the government’s explanation that the arrest was part of a controlled delivery operation, arguing that the suspect was arrested immediately upon arrival at the airport rather than being allowed to proceed with the alleged delivery.

“It’s not like they allowed him to take the cocaine, leave the airport, and then attempt to deliver the cocaine so they can go after the so-called campaign. They arrested him right there at the airport,” he said.

The NPP spokesperson further questioned the government’s account of the suspect’s movements, noting that the Syrian national had reportedly travelled from Lebanon to Accra before returning to Beirut with the suspected drugs.

The suspect was arrested on Saturday, October 31, after arriving at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport from Accra aboard a Middle East Airlines flight. The suspected cocaine was concealed in two pieces of luggage.

Lebanese authorities reported that the seizure involved 40 packages of cocaine weighing 46.7 kilogrammes, describing it as the largest drug seizure in the airport’s history.

The Lebanese General Directorate of Customs said the operation was conducted in coordination with the country’s General Security following intelligence gathering and surveillance.

However, the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has maintained that the arrest resulted from a coordinated controlled-delivery operation involving Ghanaian and Lebanese drug enforcement authorities.

In a statement, the Commission said the exercise was aimed at identifying and apprehending individuals at both ends of the drug supply chain while gathering intelligence to dismantle the wider international trafficking network.

Mr Tonto also criticised the government over what he described as its tendency to blame the previous NPP administration for drug trafficking incidents.

He recalled an earlier cocaine seizure at Ghana’s ports, where the government reportedly attributed the incident to changes in port security procedures under the previous administration.

He, however, rejected that explanation, insisting that the policy changes cited by the government applied only to imports and not exports.

“That policy that they were referring to had to do with only imports, not even exports. They shirked the responsibility and blamed everybody else by themselves,” he said.

He accused the government of shifting responsibility instead of addressing concerns surrounding drug trafficking and security at the country’s ports.

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