Spanish authorities have intercepted 2.6 tonnes of cocaine concealed in a shipment of coconuts exported through Ghana’s Tema Port, marking yet another major international narcotics seizure linked to cargo originating from the country’s main seaport.
The seizure, announced on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, has led to the arrest of two suspects after Spanish investigators tracked the shipment from the Port of Valencia to a warehouse in Almería, where the illicit cargo was being unloaded.
According to Spanish customs authorities and the Guardia Civil, the cocaine was concealed beneath specially constructed false bottoms inside wooden crates carrying coconuts.
The two containers had been loaded at Tema Port on August 2 before arriving in Valencia 20 days later. Customs officials flagged the shipment as high-risk for narcotics trafficking and subjected it to a detailed inspection.
The search uncovered packages of cocaine hidden beneath the false compartments. Laboratory tests subsequently confirmed the substance to be cocaine.
Rather than immediately confiscating the shipment, investigators removed the drugs while leaving the containers sealed to facilitate a controlled delivery operation aimed at identifying members of the trafficking network.
The operation led officers to two refrigerated trucks that collected the containers from the port. Surveillance teams followed the vehicles to a warehouse at the La Juaida Industrial Estate in Almería, where two men were arrested while the cargo was being unloaded.
Spanish authorities identified the suspects as the alleged importer of the narcotics and the individual responsible for supervising the unloading operation.
The latest interception adds to an increasing number of large-scale narcotics seizures abroad involving export consignments traced to Ghana.
As has already been reported by The New Republic, large quantities of cocaine that were stockpiled in Ghana by international drug cartels during the very permisive years of 2023 and 2024 are being scurried out by mules after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was voted out of office in 2024.
In September 2026, French customs authorities intercepted nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine concealed inside a container carrying plastic waste from Ghana at the Port of Dunkirk. The shipment was estimated to be worth approximately €225 million (about US$261 million).
The French seizure triggered investigations in Ghana, leading to the arrest of three suspects by the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC). Several additional suspects were subsequently arrested and arraigned before the courts over their alleged involvement in the shipment.
Investigations into that case also focused attention on cargo handling procedures at Tema Port after questions reportedly emerged over abnormalities detected in container scan images before the shipment was cleared for export.
In another international operation, Lebanese authorities arrested a Syrian national at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on October 31, 2026, after he arrived from Accra with approximately 40 kilogrammes of suspected cocaine concealed in two suitcases.
NACOC later confirmed the arrest and disclosed that it was collaborating with Lebanese authorities to identify and apprehend suspected accomplices in Ghana.
The growing trend extends beyond 2026.
In November 2025, Belgian customs officers discovered 2,829 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in cassava flour shipped from Tema to the Port of Antwerp. A month later, another 1,158 kilogrammes of suspected cocaine from Ghana was intercepted at the same port.
Earlier, in June 2025, Dutch customs officials seized 4.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden inside a timber consignment from Tema at the Port of Amsterdam, a haul that was then reported as the largest cocaine seizure in the port’s history.
The illicit trafficking has not been limited to cocaine alone. In June 2026, Australian authorities announced the seizure of 320 kilogrammes of methamphetamine concealed in a charcoal shipment originating from Ghana.
The repeated interceptions have intensified international concern over the exploitation of Ghana’s ports and legitimate export trade by transnational drug trafficking syndicates.
Figures from Belgian customs, reported by The New Republic in September 2026, ranked Ghana as the fifth-largest country of origin for cocaine seized at the Port of Antwerp in 2025. Ghana was the only African country among the top five countries on the list.
The classification relates to the country from which the cargo was shipped rather than the origin of the cocaine itself, with investigators indicating that the narcotics were believed to have originated in South America before being concealed in legitimate export cargo.
A separate analysis published in September identified at least 28 international narcotics cases linked to Ghana between January 2025 and September 2026, including 11 involving cocaine. The published weights of the cocaine seizures alone totalled approximately 15.8 tonnes.
The massive seizure in France prompted President John Dramani Mahama to convene an emergency meeting of Ghana’s security chiefs and direct the establishment of an inter-agency task force to review the country’s systems for detecting narcotics at ports and border entry points.
The continuing stream of overseas interceptions has renewed concerns over cargo screening, intelligence gathering, inter-agency coordination and the effectiveness of measures intended to safeguard Ghana’s ports from exploitation by international drug trafficking organisations.