Britons in Ghana cocaine arrests

The girls were arrested at Accra airport by officers from the Ghanaian Narcotic Control Board.

The arrests came as part of a joint project by Britain and Ghana to tackle drug smugglers using Accra airport as a gateway to Britain and Europe.

The two teenagers, both from London, are thought to be college students.

In the operation, which was launched last November, British customs officers give technical and operational expertise to the Ghanaian government, including training in the use of Foreign Office-funded scanning equipment.

The project follows the success of Operation Airbridge, a joint UK-Jamaican initiative to catch drug couriers with internal concealments of class A drugs before they board planes from Jamaica.

HM Revenue and Customs believes that operation has proved the value of working in partnership with local law enforcement agencies.

During the four years that operation has been running, the number of "drug swallowers" detected at UK airports from Jamaica has fallen markedly.

West Africa has been identified as a staging post for Class A drugs targeted on the UK.

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