Officer Opuku

Published November 15, 2017

Officer Opoku during an Equipment Training session in 2016

My name is Officer Opoku and I work with the Narcotics Control Board-Ghana. As a Principal Narcotics Desk Officer (PNDO), my duties include intelligence gathering, confidential informant handling, surveillance, undercover operations, and raid and airport interdictions.

All the trainings that I attended at the West Africa Regional Training Center (RTC) were timely, well organized, very beneficial and applicable to my field of work as a PNDO. Amongst all the trainings deliveries at the RTC, one training that boosted my confidence in my career was the Basic Drug Enforcement Seminar delivered by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). During that training, I specifically acquired basic knowledge and techniques needed to combat illicit drug trafficking.

Steve, (instructor) from the DEA Global Training Team introduced participants to “interviewing and interrogation techniques”. As a result of these techniques and skills acquired, I was successful at arresting suspects with cocaine and heroin at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA). Though most suspects deny ownership of the drugs found on them at the spot of arrest, my team and I were able to get the needed information through the interviewing techniques skills acquired at the RTC.

Another very important course that built my confidence in my area of work with respect to an undercover and a surveillance operation was the “Transnational Organized Crime Investigations Course” (TOCI). As an undercover agent, I was part of an operational team that arrested a male suspect from Brazil with tightly wrapped pellets of white substance at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA). The narcotic substance was field-tested to be cocaine.

At the arrival hall at KIA, the suspect secretly approached me (undercover agent) to assist him exit without being noticed for a handsome reward. In my position as an undercover agent, I accepted to help the suspect and further asked him how and why he was going to reward me. The suspect openly informed me that he had powder on him and needed to get through security checks without being noticed. The suspect was easily arrested based on the information he shared with me as an undercover agent.

I must emphasize that the cozy facility of the RTC is exceptional and the staff are very welcoming. Most importantly, the tailor-made programs for Law Enforcement Officers will go a very long way in apprehending ‘bad guys’ and hence save innocent lives.

What an excellent narrative! Do you have any examples of how you or your agency have directly benefitted from RTC training? Would you like to be featured in our newsletter and in our future regional alumni events? Then please write to us at info@westafricartc.org and we’ll get started!