Major Abdul Braimah (RTD), Deputy Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NCB), at the weekend urged border officials and security agencies in the Upper East Region to step up vigilance, as the area had become an alternative route for drug traffickers.

He said with the "water-tight" security at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and the frequent arrests, drug couriers no longer found it safe to operate from the airport.

"Intelligent reports have it that these traffickers now fly over to Ouagadougou with their cargo and come into Ghana by road through the Upper East and Upper West borders," he said.

Major Braimah said this at the Zuarungu warehouse of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) where 68 kilograms of Indian hemp seized from smugglers two years ago was burnt.

He said it was the NCB's policy that in cases involving confiscated narcotic drugs the exhibit must be destroyed publicly after the courts had disposed of such cases.

Maj Braimah expressed misgivings about the prevailing trend whereby, heroine, cocaine and other hard drugs were often kept for long periods as exhibits due to delays at the courts.

''Apart from giving rise to suspicion from the public the situation also poses a real danger as anything can happen to the exhibit while the case is still pending.''

He appealed to the Attorney General's Department to devise a new system that would allow the courts to keep only little samples of confiscated drugs as exhibit so that the bulk would be destroyed immediately.

The Upper East Regional Commander of CEPS, Mr Ernest A. Sasuh, said the marijuana which was destroyed, was seized from smugglers in two operations by CEPS personnel along the Ghana-Burkina Faso border at Mognori in the Bawku East District.