The Acting Director of Public Affairs, Francis Opoku Amoah, has said that some of the suspects linked to the alleged drug trafficking network of Dutch fugitive Jos Leijdekkers, popularly known as “Bolle Jos”, had been under surveillance for some time.
According to Mr Opoku Amoah, the arrests were the result of an intelligence-led operation.
“NACOC is an intelligence-led institution. Sometimes, some of these things, we do not put in the public domain, but there are people that we’ve known for some time that we have been working on,” he said.
PNCO Opoku Amoah said the Commission’s intelligence gathering also revealed connections between the suspects and the Dutch fugitive, who remains at large.
He explained that investigators had to process the intelligence they gathered before deciding when to move in.
“At what point do you make it an actionable intelligence? At what point would you want to act on it? It is all based on the information we have,” he said.
According to him, the operation was also coordinated to ensure that people believed to be connected to the network could be arrested around the same time.
“We also got to know that obviously it wasn’t just one person, and therefore we needed to make sure that all the people connected at the time would get them, and we get them at the same time, if possible,” he added.
The comments come after French customs seized nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine at the port of Dunkirk on September 10, 2026. The consignment, concealed in a container carrying plastic waste from Ghana, was reportedly worth about €225 million.
PNCO Opoku Amoah said the Commission is continuing to investigate the wider network and declined to disclose details of some of the intelligence gathered, citing the ongoing investigation.
“The drug business is such that it is a transnational organised crime, and therefore, it is no one particular individual, one particular person, who does it. It is interconnected. There are linkages, and therefore, that is what we are looking at. That is what we’re investigating,” he said.
He also indicated that further arrests remain possible as investigators follow the evidence.
“It is possible that what we have now could be. It is also possible that more people could be arrested whilst investigation is ongoing,” he said.
The latest development is that four Ghanaian suspects, Desmond Koranteng Curiel, alias “Paul Kweku Yeboah” or “Biggs”; Musah Attah, alias “Kromo”; Kweku Otchere; and Jessica Hartog, have since been charged and remanded by the High Court in Accra. They are expected to reappear on October 13, 2026.
A fifth accused, Dutch national Jos Leijdekkers, alias “Bolle Jos”, is said to be at large.
The accused persons are facing charges including conspiracy to export narcotic drugs without a licence and exportation of narcotic drugs. They are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
NACOC says investigations are ongoing and further action will depend on the evidence gathered.
By Christabel Success Treve
