Schoolgirls held in Ghana for drug smuggling

Two British teenagers arrested for suspected drug smuggling in Ghana said they were tricked into taking them to London.

The 16-year-olds who were stopped as they tried to board a plane at Accra airport for allegedly carrying cocaine worth £300,000 in laptop bags on July 2.

Police identified the two as Yasemin Vatansever, the London-born daughter of immigrants from Cyprus, and Yateunde Diya, also a British citizen of Nigerian descent.

Speaking by telephone from prison in Accra, Vatansever said: "There were basically two boys over here who gave us two bags, and told us to bring it, that it was an empty bag.

"We never thought anything bad was inside and they told us to go to the UK and drop it off to some boy at the airport. The two boys gave us a bag in Ghana to bring to London, to give to the boy in London.

"It was basically like a set up. They didn't tell us nothing, we didn't think nothing, because basically we are innocent. We don't know nothing about this drugs and stuff, we don't know nothing."

The girls parents thought they were on a school trip to France and are said to be absolutely devastated.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said that officers from the British Embassy have been supporting the two girls and have visited them almost daily.

It is believed that the drugs were discovered by scanners fitted by British custom officers as part of Operation Westbridge, a joint project to stop Ghana becoming the "new Jamaica".

(CD)