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Two UK teen girls sentenced in Ghana for drug smuggling

Two British teenage girls were sentenced on Wednesday to nine months for trying to smuggle cocaine out of Ghana in laptop bags, government officials said.

Ghana narcotics board spokesman Francis Opoku-Amoah said the sentences include time already served, meaning the girls will be released on April 18. They had been facing up to three years in jail.

The two 16-year-old students from London were convicted in November of possession and trafficking of narcotic drugs after being arrested at the Accra airport in July with about 5.8kg of cocaine in their computer cases.

"The girls get a second chance not to repeat what they did," Opoku-Amoah told reporters on exiting the courthouse. "The message is clear to everybody. Once you do it and get caught you will pay for it."

He said they will serve the remainder of their sentences at a juvenile detention center in the capital, Accra. It was not clear if this was the same facility they had been held in since their arrest.

Asked if the girls might be sent home to England to serve out their time, a British High Commission spokesman said such a move would not make sense.

"The crime was committed here, the trial was held here, and that's it," Gary Nicholls said.

The head of the girls' legal team had previously said they planned to appeal the conviction. The girls lawyers could not be immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Officials have said the two were recruited in London by drug traffickers who promised them an all-expenses-paid vacation in Ghana in return for serving as drug couriers. The teens reportedly left for Africa telling their parents they were going to France.
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