Teenage drug smugglers await sentence

Two British teenage girls convicted of trying to smuggle 6kg of cocaine out of Ghana are due to be sentenced.

Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya were arrested in July at Kotoka Airport in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.

The cocaine, which has a street value of £300,000, was found in two laptop computer bags which the girls, both 16, were carrying.

The teenagers denied all knowledge of the drugs but were convicted at a juvenile court in Ghana in November.

They face up to three years in prison and were due to be sentenced last month.

But the court decided it needed more time to consider a social services report.

A spokesman for Fair Trials International said: "We hope the court will recognise that the girls are victims of the international drug trade."

Ghana's Narcotics Control Board claim the girls were being paid £3,000 each to smuggle the cocaine to Britain.

They also claim the girls had their air tickets and accommodation paid for.

It is unlikely the girls will be able to serve their sentences in the UK as a transfer agreement between the UK and Ghana does not exist.

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