The cocaine seizure in Beirut has drawn a sharp response from the opposition benches. Kofi Tonto, who speaks on employment for the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Policy Committee, has questioned whether Ghana’s security and law enforcement machinery is doing its job, and has gone further by hinting that powerful people in government may be shielding the trade.
Appearing on Adom FM’s morning show on Monday November 2, Tonto said he was stunned that such a large quantity of cocaine could allegedly move through the layers of screening and inspection at Ghana’s airport and still land in Beirut undetected.
His central complaint was about the sheer number of agencies stationed at the airport. With so many bodies charged with watching what comes and goes, he asked how a consignment of suspected narcotics could slip past all of them. In his view, the episode points to a serious weakness in the country’s airport security systems.
One comparison clearly stuck with him: the gap between how closely ordinary motorists are watched and how loosely the country’s main international gateway appears to be policed.
Tonto noted that cameras are used to catch and penalise drivers who break traffic rules. Yet, he suggested, the same state seems unable to stop suspected cocaine from passing through its airport. He wondered why that level of technological monitoring and enforcement is not applied to drug trafficking, particularly at a vital national security facility like Kotoka International Airport.
Allegations of political complicity
Tonto also made pointed claims about the government. He suggested that some individuals within the NDC administration could be working hand in hand with those involved in importing and exporting cocaine.
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His reasoning was that large consignments keep being linked to Ghana, yet no convincing account has emerged of who is facilitating them. He voiced frustration at the absence of visible arrests and accountability in the cocaine controversies that have rocked the country, and questioned why the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and NACOC have seemingly failed to bring those implicated to justice.
NACOC’s explanation and the questions it leaves
According to reports, a Syrian national was arrested on October 31, 2026, after arriving from Accra with suspected cocaine hidden in his luggage. Lebanese Customs recorded a seizure of 46.7 kilogrammes and called it the largest drug haul in the history of Beirut’s international airport.
Ghana’s Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) later clarified that the arrest came out of a coordinated controlled-delivery operation between Ghanaian and Lebanese drug enforcement authorities. The commission said the aim was to identify suspects at both ends of the supply chain and break up the wider international network, and added that efforts were underway to apprehend suspected accomplices in Ghana.
That explanation raises a fresh question of its own: if the shipment was being tracked as part of a controlled operation, who exactly are the authorities hoping to identify and arrest in Ghana?
For Tonto, the affair goes well beyond one seizure. It touches on accountability, the strength of airport security and the possible involvement of influential figures in Ghana’s drug trade. He linked all these to the government of the day, the NDC, and said the government lied to the people during the 2024 campaign.
“The NDC Government are a bunch of crooks”, he said.
It is important to stress that his claims of political complicity are allegations, not established facts. Only proper investigations can determine whether any government officials or security personnel were involved.