CID & GSB Clears Kinapharma Bosses Of Cocaine Allegations

Three top officials of Kinapharma Pharmaceutical Company (KPC), who were arrested on Thursday for possessing substances prohibited under Ghana�s Narcotic Control Law, have been finally released by the police. The three; Mr. Kofi Nsiah Poku, the Managing Director, Mrs. Nsiah Poku, the Deputy Managing Director, and Mr. Eshun Fameyeh, the General Manager, were picked up after a combined team from the police Criminal Investigations Department headquarters and the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), identified the substances in a warehouse of the company. The police, according to some media reports, raided the warehouse upon a tip-off and that although the officials gave access to parts of the warehouse, KPC did not want the police to go to other parts, insisting that Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and, NACOB officials must also be present. KPC had earlier claimed that the substances were drug precursors meant for the manufacture of drugs. Drug precursors are used in the manufacture of drugs, but in some countries restrictions have been placed on their importation, purchase and sale because they have the potential to be used in the manufacture of illicit drugs. Today�s edition of the �Daily Graphic�, carried a publication to the effect that field test on some of the substances tested partially positive for cocaine. But in an interview on PEACEFM News, the Public Relations Officer of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Chief Inspector Joseph Benefo Darkwah revealed that reports received from the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) on the test conducted on the drugs proved negative for cocaine. According to him, analysis of the samples by the GSB showed �it was not cocaine and that there was no wrong-doing on the part of Kinapharma to import the drug into the country.� �All samples analyzed tested negative for cocaine but positive for Chlordiazepoxide. Zepoxide is not classified as a narcotic drug under PNDC Law 236, 1990�they (Kinapharma officials) are thus exonerated�as I speak to you, we�re in the process of concluding details of their bail,� Chief Inspector Benefo Darkwa said.