Two British teenagers were today convicted of trying to smuggle £300,000 of cocaine from Ghana to the UK.

Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya, both 16, face up to three years in a juvenile detention centre in the West African country.

A spokesman for the British High Commission announced the ruling outside the courthouse. Gary Nicholls said both girls were found guilty on counts of possession and trafficking of narcotic drugs. They will be sentenced on December 5.

The verdicts followed a four-month trial in which the court was told that the girls, both from Islington, North London, had tried to smuggle the cocaine to Britain.

The teenagers were arrested at an Accra’s Kotoka International Airport on July 2 carrying computer bags containing the carefully concealed drugs. Ten days later they were provisionally charged with illegal possession of drugs and attempting to smuggle more than 6kg (13lb) of cocaine into the UK.

The pair insisted that they had been set up and were oblivious to the fact they were carrying the consignment of cocaine.

The girls were being tried under Ghana’s progressive Juvenile Justice Act, meaning their trial had to be completed within six months.

Ms Vatansever is the London-born daughter of immigrants from Cyprus, while Ms Diya is a British citizen of Nigerian descent.

If they had been tried as adults the teenagers could have expected up to 20 years in jail.

For the past three years Ghana has been setting new records for drugs seizures in Africa. West Africa is seen as being at the intersection between European traffickers and major South American producers.

At the time a narcotics officer who interviewed the girls claimed he was convinced they were aware of what they were doing.

It is probable they were recruited in London to come to Ghana and pick up the bags for around £3,000. Around 60 such ‘classic mules’ are believed to arrive in Britain from the region each week.

West Africa has become an important staging post for Colombian cocaine on its way to lucrative European markets.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone