A nine-member team from the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), in collaboration with 20 operations officers of the Ghana Prisons Service, have embarked on a security search at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison at Nsawam in the Eastern Region.
The exercise, which took place on Sunday, April 14, 2024, was to find and retrieve narcotic drugs from the facility. But at the end of the search, no narcotic drug was retrieved in and around the facility.
The NACOC officers went to the prison facility together with five security dogs. The search was conducted on inmates, cells, workshops, classrooms, church, mosque, hospital and every area that inmates could have access to.
It was also extended to the outer perimeter wall of the prison facility in search of any hidden narcotic drug. The sniffer dogs were released to the cells and every area of the facility, but no single narcotic drug was detected
The Second-in-Command of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, Assistant Director of Prisons Andrews Osei, expressed appreciation to the NACOC officers for the exercise. He assured the team that officers of the facility would continue their routine searches to ensure that narcotic drugs and other contraband did not get access to the prison environment.
According to the head of the K9 Unit of NACOC, who was also the leader of the team, NCO Bernard Tetteh, narcotic drug use had become a public health issue in the public space for some time now, with the youth in the majority.
He said most of its users exhibited signs such as anxiety, paranoia, nervousness, mental instability, increased irritability, and anger, among others, which had a serious negative effect on their mental health.
“This very exercise aimed to search and retrieve narcotic drugs in the prisons facility amid public opinion that prisons are breeding grounds for illegal drugs such as narcotics,” he emphasised.
He commended the authorities of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison for their effective collaboration in opening their doors for the exercise. He also applauded the management of the Prisons Service for ensuring a narcotic-free facility contrary to the popular opinion that there is an influx of narcotic drugs in the prison facilities.
NACOC is expected to extend the exercise to all prison facilities across the country.
