The Chronicle says the national security set-up failed to track down another cocaine haul late last month, in similar circumstances to the famous M.V. Benjamin case. The paper said this happened even though all appropriate national security establishments were alerted about the arrival of the narcotic-laden vessel. Comparatively, the quantity that was being carried by the vessel in question makes the 77 parcels missing from MV Benjamin, just small stuff, according to the paper, concluding that measuring the load in tonnes would make more sense than the MV Benjamin’s ‘parcels’. “Chronicle's follow up checks with sources within the Ghana Navy and Tema Port gave the name of the vessel as M.T. Jano. It bore the flag of the Comoros Island and stormed into Ghanaian territorial waters between 24th and 29th of May loaded heavily with the narcotic substance which our sources revealed was nothing but cocaine.” The paper said just like in the MV Benjamin saga, after all the state security organs that needed to be alerted about the presence of the vessel were adequately informed, “there was another controversial security fiasco, leaving the vessel off the hook. Indeed, sources say intelligence information about this vessel heading for Ghanaian territorial waters was passed on to state security institutions when the vessel was as far away as Cape Verde.” According to The Chronicle, Interior Minister Hon. Albert Kan-Dapaah, National Security Minister, Mr. Francis Poku and the command of the Ghana Navy were said to have been privileged to the early signals about the drug-bearing vessel and were therefore expected to see to its arrest. Again, just like the MV Benjamin case, the Ghana Navy, according to the Chronicle’s report, was provided with the name of the vessel, coordinates, plus a photographic view of the vessel together with its location. “A navy platoon was set to sea to arrest the vessel, having been updated with the coordinates, name and location of the vessel as it kept mov¬ing.” The report said the operational naval platoon was constantly updated with any new information on the vessel, including change of name and other coordinates. Initially, the platoon was said to have reported back to base that the vessel had been spotted just about 29 nautical miles away and was just about to be captured. Days later, the signal from the navy operation group changed and this time it was that M.T. Jano could not be located. “Yesterday, Colonel E.K. Nibo, Director of Public Relations of the Ghana Armed Forces could not readily disclose issues about the drug-laden vessel when he was contacted in the morning. He said he was not aware of the issue raised by this reporter and therefore asked for sometime to do checks with the naval command,” said the report. The paper said when it called Col. Nibo later in the day, he disclosed that he had gotten in touch with the naval command and they had disclosed that they indeed received the intelligence information and carried out an operation to arrest the vessel but naval personnel who went out for the operation could not locate the vessel in question. The Chronicle said its investigations revealed however that it was simply another great disappointment by Ghana’s security establishment and a portrayal of how absorbent the whole security system is when it comes to dealing with narcotic cases since it has been confirmed that while the Navy failed to locate the vessel, a local vessel company was able to locate it upon a distress call from the crew of M.T. Jano, days after information was given to the security institutions and after the failure of the Navy. “As part of investigations into this cocaine vessel that either passed through our waters and headed for another destination or had the tonnes of narcotic drugs discharged into the country, reporters visited the Tema Fishing harbour to talk to officials of Tropic Sun, the vessel company that was said to have sent food and fuel to M.T. Jano upon a distress call from the crew.” The Chief Engineer of Tropic Sun, Mr. Seth Ofori Mante, who spoke to the paper in the presence of other officers of the company, confirmed that their agent whose name he did not give, contacted them and said a distress call had been received from the said vessel and wanted Tropic Sun to assist by sending food and fuel to M.T. Jano. Mr. Mante said the vessel had sent information that it needed 45 tonnes of fuel and food. "From where we were told the vessel was, we realized that we also needed five tons of fuel to be able to get there and back. So in all, we loaded 50 tons of fuel and went and gave them the 45 tons and the food we had loaded for them," the Chief Engineer said. He said for them as a vessel group, they had to respond to the distress call because if they found themselves in the same situation anywhere, they would expect other vessels to come to their aid. Mr. Mante said M.T. Jano was located at deep sea off the coast of Awutu Breku, and said geographically, it was located at North 4, West 1. He said it took them about ten hours to get to the vessel after taking off from Tema. It was also realized from the interaction that Tropic Sun was the vessel that had been engaged for works on the West African Gas Pipeline project. "For us, we just did our job by responding to a distress call and we did not know where the vessel was going and what it was carrying. When we returned, officials from NACOB (Narcotic Control Board) and BNI came here to search our, vessel. We did not know the reason but later, we realized it was because we had gone to supply food and fuel to M.T. Jano. They found nothing after the search so they left and we have not heard anything again," the Engineer explained. National Security Minister, Mr. Francis Poku told the paper in an interview on Wednesday that, with the help of the Navy, some vessels had been arrested and brought to the harbour. He could not however respond specifically to issues about Jano, giving the reason that he was outside his office at the time of the call. He said if he were in the office he could have given detailed responses. “Interior Minister, Kan-Dapaah who is accused by security experts of parading recruits of NACOB on television despite the fact that NACOB officials, just like BNI personnel, should not be known by the public, could also not respond to the issues because when he was first called, he said he was in parliament and during a second call he said he was in a meeting”, according to The Chronicle.