NACOC boss warns of illicit tobacco threat
It does not attract the same attention as drug trafficking or arms smuggling, but Ghana’s security establishment is increasingly treating the illicit tobacco trade as a threat serious enough to warrant its own dedicated response.
Brigadier General Maxwell Obuba Mantey, Director-General of the Narcotics Control Commission, made that case plainly on Monday when he opened a week-long Training of Trainers workshop at the Bureau of National Intelligence Training School, laying out the scale of a problem that quietly bleeds government coffers while putting unregulated, potentially dangerous products into the hands of consumers.
The illegal tobacco trade, he warned, is not a victimless crime. It strips governments of billions in tax revenue annually, provides cover and financing for organised criminal networks, undercuts legitimate businesses, and floods markets with products that have bypassed every safety and quality standard designed to protect the public.
The training, organised by the National Security Council Secretariat in partnership with Sahel Holding Security, brings together frontline officers from across Ghana’s security and regulatory architecture, NACOC, the Bureau of National Intelligence, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Ports and Harbour Security, the Food and Drugs Authority, and National Security. The goal is to turn participants into certified trainers who will carry the knowledge back to their agencies and replicate it nationwide, multiplying the programme’s reach well beyond the room.
At the practical level, the workshop is designed to sharpen the ability of officers stationed at Ghana’s entry and exit points to spot, investigate, and disrupt illicit tobacco operations, deploying intelligence-led methods rather than relying on chance interceptions. Equally important, Brig Gen. Mantey noted, is the push to build stronger information-sharing and coordination channels between the participating institutions, recognizing that cross-border criminal trade is rarely stopped by any single agency working alone.
The initiative signals a shift in how Ghana is choosing to frame the tobacco smuggling problem, less as a customs irregularity and more as an organised crime issue with real consequences for public health and national revenue, one that demands the same coordinated, intelligence-driven approach applied to more visible forms of trafficking.
Source: myjoyonline.com
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