Security Consultant and former Intelligence Officer Richard Kumadoe says the seizure of 46.7 kilogrammes of cocaine at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport shows that coordination among Ghana’s security agencies works.
He made the case in an interview with The Vaultz News, arguing that the seizure does not necessarily point to weaknesses in Ghana’s intelligence sharing.
Mr Kumadoe explained that accounts from Lebanese authorities and the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) suggest the suspect, a Syrian national who reportedly travelled from Accra, was under surveillance before he left.
He noted that the circumstances could point to a coordinated Ghana and Lebanon operation built on controlled delivery, a method in which authorities monitor a suspected drug consignment so they can arrest people at its destination.
“It cannot be that there is lack of collaboration or intelligence sharing among security agencies in Ghana and their foreign counterpart, no.”
Security Consultant and former Intelligence Officer Richard Kumadoe
Intelligence-Sharing Concerns Rejected
Mr Kumadoe challenged suggestions that the absence of explicit acknowledgements of Ghanaian security agencies in public statements by Lebanese officials demonstrated a failure of intelligence cooperation.
He argued that foreign security agencies are not professionally obliged to publicly identify every international partner that provides intelligence during an investigation or coordinated operation.
Responding to concerns raised by analysts, including IMANI Africa Vice President Bright Simons, about the limited references to Ghanaian agencies in Lebanese accounts of the seizure, Mr Kumadoe questioned whether such acknowledgements were necessary.
“Recently, the US FBI head spoke about an operation in Ghana, and he didn’t mention the role Ghana’s security agencies played. Sam George took him on. These are guys who work outside of the security environment. Are they obliged?”
Security Consultant and former Intelligence Officer Richard Kumadoe
According to him, the Bureau of National Intelligence (BNI), for instance, would not be expected to publicly disclose every instance in which it provides intelligence to NACOC or another security institution.
Mr Kumadoe maintained that the assessment of intelligence cooperation should therefore be based on the operational circumstances and established security protocols rather than whether foreign authorities publicly acknowledge Ghanaian agencies.
Controlled Delivery Could Explain Beirut Operation
The former Intelligence Officer identified controlled delivery as a possible explanation for how the suspected cocaine courier travelled from Accra before being arrested in Beirut.
He explained that the strategy involves security agencies allowing a suspected drug consignment to proceed to its intended destination under surveillance, while intelligence is shared with authorities in the receiving country to facilitate an arrest.
Under this arrangement, the authorities in the country of departure may decide against making an immediate arrest if monitoring the shipment to its destination offers a greater operational advantage.
“Control delivery means that we know you are going with it. We will not arrest you here. We’ll give a tip-off to your final destination. They pick you up there. Then we share the intelligence. We make a number of arrests here, and we balance the books”.
Security Consultant and former Intelligence Officer Richard Kumadoe
Mr Kumadoe suggested that the Beirut operation could have followed this approach, with Ghanaian authorities providing information to their Lebanese counterparts to facilitate the eventual arrest.
He outlined three possible considerations behind the operation, including the possibility that the Lebanese authorities were testing investigation protocols re-established with Ghana, the suspect having already been under surveillance, and the comparative operational advantage of securing his arrest at the destination.
He noted that Lebanese authorities had visited Ghana in the previous year to re-establish investigation protocols, following a period without an established working relationship between the two sides dating back to 2001. However, he presented these explanations as possibilities rather than confirmed details of the operation.
Ghana and Lebanon’s Intelligence Cooperation
The Beirut seizure has attracted renewed scrutiny of Ghana’s role in international drug trafficking networks, particularly because the suspect reportedly departed from Accra before the cocaine was intercepted in Lebanon.
NACOC’s account, as referenced by Mr Kumadoe, indicated that the individual had been identified through intelligence and that his activities in Ghana had been observed before the operation.
The Commission also reportedly referred to efforts to secure an arrest in Ghana, drawing a comparison with another international drug trafficking case. For Mr Kumadoe, these details are significant because they suggest that Ghanaian authorities were not necessarily unaware of the suspect’s movements before the seizure.
He maintained that the reference to controlled delivery in NACOC’s communication should be considered when assessing the operation, rather than treating the suspect’s departure from Accra as automatic evidence of an intelligence failure.
Kumadoe Cites Operational Protocols in Intelligence Assessment
Mr Kumadoe further argued that public expectations about international security cooperation must reflect the confidential nature of intelligence operations. He maintained that the absence of public acknowledgement from foreign authorities does not establish that Ghanaian institutions were excluded from an investigation.
He also referenced the arrest of a Ghanaian Member of Parliament by Dutch security officials at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on May 10, 2026, as an example of how intelligence contributions from other jurisdictions may not feature prominently in public accounts of an operation.
According to him, the identity of the agency or individual providing intelligence does not always become part of the public narrative, even when that information contributes to an arrest.
He urged a professional assessment of the Beirut incident, grounded in operational protocols and the available intelligence rather than assumptions about international cooperation.
The former intelligence chief’s defence places the focus on understanding the distinction between an intelligence failure and a controlled operation involving cooperation between security agencies in different countries.
While the precise circumstances surrounding the Beirut seizure remain subject to clarification by the relevant authorities, Mr Kumadoe maintains that the available accounts do not justify concluding that Ghana’s intelligence-sharing arrangements failed.
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