The drugs were to be delivered in The Gambia through Mother Comfort shipment, according to Lopes Simoes, a crew member.
The ten people arrested in this story of international hard drug trafficking were presented Monday to the public prosecutor.
Analysis carried out by the Scientific Technical Police Division (DPTS) revealed a total weight of 2,975 kilograms of cocaine. To determine the ramifications of this international drug trafficking network, the OCRTIS police officers to whom the investigation was entrusted, carried out a search at the home of Senegalese Mamadou Bathia in the Cité Asecna in Yeumbeul.
Following close questioning, Ezekiel Tumbiri, admitted to being the front captain of the ship, designated Joaquim Lopes Dos Reis Simoes as the commander.
He specifies that it was James Holland, his boss and owner of the ship “Mother Comfort”, who instructed him, in April 2023, to supervise the repairs of the ship “Ville d’Abidjan” belonging to his friend Jack who was operating off the coast of Sao Tome and Principe and who proposed to him captain position for an operation that will allow him to recoup his funds.
Questioned about his involvement in this trafficking, Ezekiel Tumbiri declares "to have been forced to participate in this trip, believing that the boat was coming to Dakar for mechanical problems, after several days of navigation, Joaquim Lopes Dos Rels Simoes told him that 'It was about recover a load on the high seas. On the transhipment, he informs that it was “a pleasure boat which transported the narcotic product.” Asked to name those really responsible, he added that “only Joaquim Lopes Dos Reis Simoes who commanded the ship, communicated with the other ship using two satellite telephones”.
Lopes Simoes, Portuguese-Cape Verdean, confirmed the statements of his comrade, admitting to having been recruited by his friend Jack Holland as a logistician, for sums varying between 100,000 and 150,000 Euros. He adds that, in 2019, he went to Colombia to retrieve GPS coordinates, for 1,000 Euros on behalf of a Nigerian trafficker named Malik. Looking back on his service record, as a mechanic then boat captain, he confides having “traveled the world before settling in Guinea Bissau until 2021”. Lopes presented the ball to Rogelio Valencia Vergara as the real architect of the operation.
After transshipment of the drugs, Valencia did not hesitate to warn the crew members against any attempt at betrayal. Lopes Simoes clarified that “the drugs were to be delivered to Gambia and that Jack Holland was to collect 10% of the cargo”.
A son of a West African Head of State cited...
Rogelio Valencia Vergara unpacked it all. Declining his role, he claims to have been recruited, in January 2023, by a member of the “Cartel Del Golfo”, named Victor. He gave the number of his recruiter with the code 0057 (Colombia) who had approached him during his mother's funeral in Colombia.
According to Valencia, the cartel threatened him with reprisals against his family if he refused, saying that after a short stay in London, he went to Togo, Benin and Nigeria, before reaching Guinea-Bissau, in the company of Lopes Simoes, on board "Ville d'Abidjan". He recalled that “Victor had assured him that in Africa, everything was under control and that there was no risk security linked to the operation.”Rogelio Valencia Vergara, the most talkative, reported that during his stays in Togo and Benin, “a lady took care of the administrative and financial formalities of hotels and furnished apartments. But in Nigeria, it was a diplomatic car that came to pick him up at the Beninese border.” According to him, the wait in Bissau lasted several months, before his Colombian contact communicated to him the GPS data of the operation which he transmitted to Joaquim Lopes Dos Reis Simoes and his boss Jack.
It was on November 11, 2023 that they left “Prince's Island” in Bissau, spent 6 days at sea before crossing the Yacht-like mother ship coming from Salvador for transshipment. Confident that Joaquim Lopes Dos Reis Simoes ensured communication with the “mother ship” and Jack was waiting for them in Gambia, he persists that “the other members of the crew were unaware of the true purpose of the operation, of which they were briefed at the day before transshipment”. Confirming that all members had participated in loading the bags which were to be delivered to Gambia, he cited the real owners including a son of a West African Head of State and a Dutchman whom he did not identify.
Valencia declares that he was to receive from the Colombian (his recruiter) 40,000 Pounds Sterling, or 32,000,000 FCFA. Prosecuted for criminal conspiracy, aiding or assisting an international cocaine trafficking enterprise and forgery and use of forgery, Mamadou Bathia, Innocent Onveiekwe Chibueze, Elijah Udo Bsesang, Godstime Ugnorugbo, Amaechi Leo Nkwocha, Aleali Gomies, Domingos Da Costa, Ezekiel Tumbiripro claimed their innocence, claiming to be ignorant of the real nature of the product transported.
Source: PressAfrik
