A massive international cocaine seizure in France has opened a potentially explosive investigation into Ghana’s port security system, with investigators now working to establish how nearly four tonnes of cocaine allegedly concealed in a commercial container were able to leave Ghana without detection.

The consignment—almost 3.9 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated street value of €225 million—was intercepted by French customs at the port of Dunkirk on September 10.

The drugs were concealed in a container carrying plastic waste that had arrived from Ghana.

But while French authorities have stopped the shipment, the central question now facing Ghanaian investigators is much closer to home:

How did it get out of Ghana?

Information available to Citi Newsroom indicates that the Ghanaian investigation has widened considerably, moving beyond the suspects already before the courts to examine the exporter, the freight-forwarding arrangements and the Customs scanning process through which the container passed.

At the centre of that investigation is a man identified as Frank, who is alleged to have been the exporter of the consignment.

Frank is also alleged to have engaged F&F Logistics, a freight-forwarding company, to facilitate the shipment and undertake the logistics associated with its export.

Frank was reportedly picked up by the *National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) on Wednesday, September 16, and is being detained as investigations continue.

The role of F&F Logistics is now one of the key lines of inquiry.

Investigators are seeking to establish precisely what instructions the company received, from whom, what documentation it handled and what role it played in moving the container through the export process.

The fact that a freight forwarder handled an export shipment does not, by itself, establish knowledge of concealed narcotics or criminal involvement.

That distinction will be crucial as the investigation unfolds.

But if Frank was indeed the exporter and F&F Logistics acted on his instructions, investigators will need to reconstruct every step of the transaction—from the preparation of the cargo and documentation to the point at which the container was handed over for export.

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Then comes Customs

Perhaps the most sensitive part of the investigation is the Customs scanning process.

Sources indicate that Customs officers who were on duty in the scanning room on the day the container departed Ghana have been interrogated, with some reportedly detained.

Their involvement does not establish wrongdoing.

But their actions on that day could hold critical answers.

The investigation must establish whether the container was scanned, what the scanner showed, who reviewed the image, whether the image raised any concerns, and why the container was ultimately allowed to leave the country.

Because if the cocaine was already concealed inside the container when it passed through Ghana’s export controls, then somewhere along that chain there was a failure that allowed an extraordinary quantity of narcotics to escape detection.

Twelve questions now demand answers

The investigation must answer at least 12 fundamental questions:

Was the container scanned in Ghana?

If so, exactly when was it scanned and which scanning equipment was used?

If it was scanned, what did the image show?

Was the cocaine visible or were there anomalies that should have triggered further inspection?

Was the scanning image reviewed by a Customs officer?

Who reviewed it and what decision was made?

Was the container physically examined or cleared on the basis of the scan?

If it was not physically inspected, why?

Who selected or cleared the container for scanning?

What was the chain of responsibility from arrival at the port to final clearance?

What documentation accompanied the shipment?

What did the export declaration say the container contained?

Who was listed as the exporter, consignee and freight forwarder?

Do the official documents confirm Frank as the exporter and F&F Logistics as the freight forwarder?

Who instructed F&F Logistics?

Was the company acting directly on instructions from Frank?

What precisely was Frank’s role?

What did he declare, what did he arrange and what instructions did he give to the freight forwarder?

Were there discrepancies between the declared cargo and the actual contents?

If the container was declared as carrying plastic waste, were there inconsistencies in the quantity, description, weight, origin or other documentation?

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Did any official depart from established Customs or port-security procedures?

If so, was it negligence, a procedural failure or something more deliberate? That is a matter investigators must establish through evidence.

Most critically, was the cocaine already inside the container when it passed through Ghana’s controls?

Or was there another point in the logistics chain where the drugs could have been introduced?

The French detection raises another uncomfortable question

The circumstances of the French seizure make the Ghanaian questions even more pressing. French authorities were able to detect the suspicious container and subsequently uncover almost four tonnes of cocaine.

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That raises an obvious question:

If the narcotics were already inside the container when it left Ghana, why did Ghana’s own controls not detect them?

Was the problem the technology?

Was it intelligence?

Was the container incorrectly risk-profiled?

Was the scan improperly interpreted?

Was physical inspection required but not carried out?

Or did somebody deliberately ensure that the container passed through the system?

At this stage, none of those possibilities can be stated as fact.

They are questions the investigation must answer.

A shipment too large to ignore

The sheer scale of the seizure makes the case extraordinary.

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This was not a small quantity of drugs hidden in luggage or transported by an individual.

Almost 3.9 tonnes of cocaine allegedly moved inside a commercial container through an international supply chain.

That means the investigation must look beyond the person who allegedly arranged the shipment and examine the systems and people that enabled the container to move.

Four Ghanaians have already been arraigned before the High Court in Accra in connection with the shipment and face charges relating to conspiracy to export narcotic drugs and exportation of narcotic drugs. Dutch national Jos Leijdekkers, alias “Bolle Jos,” has also been named as an accused person and remains at large.

NACOC has indicated that investigations are continuing and that further arrests could follow.

Follow the container

For investigators, the container itself may provide the roadmap.

The critical evidence could lie in:

Customs scanning images;

export declarations;

shipping and freight documents;

port-entry and exit records;

CCTV footage;

container movement logs;

communications between the exporter and freight forwarder;

records of who handled the container;

and the identities of officials who authorised or cleared it.

Taken together, these records could reconstruct the container’s journey from its preparation in Ghana to its eventual seizure in France.

The bigger issue for Ghana

The investigation has therefore become about more than four suspects or one freight-forwarding company.

It is about the credibility of Ghana’s export-control system.

If a container containing almost four tonnes of cocaine was able to leave Ghana undetected, the country needs to know exactly where the system failed and why.

If the drugs were concealed before the container entered the Customs process, the question is why they were not detected.

If they were introduced later, investigators must identify where that happened.

If the scanner detected something but the container was nevertheless cleared, the circumstances surrounding that decision must be established.

And if any person deliberately interfered with the process, the evidence must identify who did so and how.

The question that cannot be avoided*

The French seizure has already answered one question:

The cocaine was there.

The Ghanaian investigation now has to answer the harder questions:

Who put it there?

Who arranged for it to leave Ghana?

Who handled the export process?

Who cleared the container?

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And above all:

How did nearly four tonnes of cocaine pass through Ghana’s export-control system? Until those questions are answered, the seizure in France is only the end of the journey. The real story may be what happened before the container ever left Ghana.