NACOC, Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission intensify efforts to curb drug trafficking

The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has strengthened its collaboration with the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission to prevent illicit drug trafficking through Ghana’s postal and courier services.

The renewed partnership is aimed at tightening security within the sector, improving the detection of illicit drugs in parcels and supporting efforts to make Ghana a drug-free society.

NACOC Director-General Major General Maxwell Obuba Mantey gave the assurance when the Acting Executive Secretary of the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission, Cosmas Anpengnuo, and members of his management team paid a working visit to him on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.

Major General Mantey reaffirmed NACOC’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to combat drug trafficking, assuring the delegation of technical, training and intelligence-gathering support to strengthen the Commission’s operations.

“NACOC is ever ready to provide strategic support to the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission in diverse ways, mainly to enable it achieve its goals. The support would be directed in the form of technical, training and intelligence gathering,” he said.

He welcomed the Commission’s proposed move to ensure that courier and postal service providers conduct background checks on their employees, saying the exercise would help companies establish the backgrounds of their staff.

The NACOC Director-General also expressed concern about the growing use of digital platforms to facilitate drug trafficking, noting that some courier and postal service providers were being exploited by traffickers.

He said the renewed collaboration was timely, stressing that drug trafficking networks involved multiple connections and required a coordinated, professional response.

Major General Mantey urged the Commission to strengthen its operational measures, particularly the enforcement of parcel verification procedures, to help prevent illicit drugs from passing through the courier and postal system and protect service providers from the consequences of trafficking-related incidents.

For his part, Mr Anpengnuo commended NACOC for its support and collaboration in the fight against illicit drug trafficking.

He said the Commission had enhanced its traceability mechanisms as part of efforts to improve oversight of courier and postal service providers.

He also highlighted the introduction of an application programming interface (API) integration platform, to which all companies had been linked, saying it had improved the Commission’s monitoring of the sector.

Mr Anpengnuo stressed that courier and postal service providers that failed to comply with the API integration system would not have their licences approved or renewed.

According to him, the platform had strengthened the Commission’s monitoring and control mechanisms by enabling it to track the parties involved in deliveries handled by service providers each day.

He assured NACOC of the Commission’s continued partnership and support to eliminate drug trafficking through Ghana’s postal and courier service points.