Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 Source: Observer, The (UK) Copyright: 2005 The Observer Contact: http://www.observer.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315 Author: Tony Thompson WAS 15-YEAR-OLD BILL SET UP AS A DRUG MULE? Bill Burgess is due to sit his GCSEs in June but by then he could be serving hard labour in Ghana It was an offer no teenager could resist: not only would Bill Burgess miss two weeks of school but he would swap the streets of Carlshalton, Surrey for the tropical paradise of Ghana, the jewel of west Africa's Gold Coast. Burgess, a tall, slightly built 15-year-old, had been to Ghana once before, travelling with his brother and sister to visit relatives of his stepfather Victor Gondah. He had been back in England only a few days when Gondah asked Burgess if he would like to accompany him on a business trip back to Ghana. Burgess spent his time relaxing and enjoying himself while Gondah worked on finalising a property deal. But last October as the pair prepared to board their return flight to London at Kotoko airport, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by officials. Eight kilos of cocaine worth more than ?500,000 had been found inside Burgess's suitcase, the packages wrapped up in his clothes. No drugs were found in the case containing Gondah's clothes. Both were arrested on the spot and have been in custody ever since. A trial is due to begin at the end of the month. Both Burgess and Gondah insist they had no knowledge of the drugs, but if convicted they can expect to be sentenced to 25 years' hard labour - the Ghanaian legal system makes few concessions to youth. With no access to a telephone or a mail service, the teenager has managed to get only one heart-rending message home through British embassy officials. 'Tell my family I love them,' it said. Burgess's mother, Amanda Brookes, insists her son has been set up and that the drugs must have been placed in his case without his knowledge. 'How can they think a 15-year-old boy would smuggle drugs?' she asked. 'He is still a child and needs to be home with his family.' Police in Ghana refused to accept the pair's pleas of innocence because their statements - regarding their movements while in Ghana - differed. New research shows the number of children caught smuggling drugs into Britain is rocketing. A report published in the latest issue of the Journal of Adolescence found that between 1992 and 1998 there was only one case of someone aged under 18 being caught smuggling drugs. There were three cases in 1999, seven in 2000 and 21 in 2001. The upward trend slows no sign of slowing, with at least 40 under-age couriers believed to have been caught in 2003, the last year for which figures are available. The authors of the study found that traffickers were effectively being encouraged to use children as mules because they were less likely to be stopped, and rarely convicted of trafficking offences, even if their cases came to court, a reflection of the belief that many are used as cover for smuggling without their knowledge or consent. Of 19 cases examined in the report, only three resulted in convictions. Of the remainder, 12 cases led to no further action, four were acquitted and one courier was fined ?100. 'Despite the large estimated street value of some of the consignments, criminal action was not often taken against the trafficker,' says one of the report's authors, Dr Patrick Kennedy. 'The fact that little is done in the way of sentencing adolescent drug traffickers means that they may continue to be a useful means for large trafficking organisations to import drugs into the UK.' Last year Maureen Frazer was jailed for 14 years for conspiring to import and supply cocaine. Frazer has four children and lived on income support but drove a brand new BMW Z3 and wore Versace clothes. She recruited girls aged between 16 and 18 and persuaded them to work as mules. They were paid around ?2,000 a time to travel to the Caribbean and bring back cocaine which would be concealed in the heels of specially made shoes, soaked into the fabric of their clothes or wrapped in condoms and swallowed. Potential recruits would be groomed at a hotel on the outskirts of Hampstead, north London, where they were asked to swallow whole grapes dipped in honey to show they could be capable of swallowing packages of cocaine. Police believe Frazer had been active since the early 1990s and, through her young couriers, was responsible for bringing millions of pounds' worth of cocaine into London. She was caught only when one of her teenage mules told a social worker what she had been doing. Because they are granted special protection by the courts, child drug mules passing through the UK are rarely identified unless they are caught outside the country. In April 2002, 12-year-old Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu developed severe stomach pains soon after arriving alone in New York on a British Airways flight from Heathrow. It transpired that he had swallowed 87 condoms containing heroin. A US citizen, he told investigators he had been paid around ?1,300 to smuggle the drugs. Back in Carshalton, friends of Bill Burgess are hoping he will soon return. 'Bill is a lovely lad,' said Doug Bone, headteacher at Wandle Valley School, where Burgess was to sit his GCSEs in June. 'We are all very shocked at what has happened. The fact that he's out there and bearing in mind the consequences of his alleged actions, the kids are all really worried. 'No one here believes he had any knowledge of what was going on. He is a very popular boy and is a member of the school football team. 'He was expected to pass his exams with good grades. We're trying to find a way to get in touch with him so all the kids can send him a card.' - --- MAP posted-by: Josh