Wegbe (V/R), April 22, GNA - A joint police and Narcotic Control Board (NCB) operation dubbed "operation-search-and-destroy" has led to the destruction of about 85 acres of cannabis plantation in the Hohoe Municipal area.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Kofi Adei-Akyeampong, Hohoe Divisional Police Commander, warned foreign financiers and their local collaborators in the cannabis business that the police would not be intimidated by their threats in the discharge of their duties. In a three-day operation that ended last Friday, 35 acres of cannabis farms at Agbeta and Agbeta were destroyed by burning when it was realized that an earlier 50 acres farm sprayed with chemicals was clandestinely re-harvested by the wee farmers. He said two locally made guns were seized at the farm gate and wild Alsatian dogs, which were deployed to ward off intruders to the farms, were shot and killed.

Labourers working on the farms fled into the forest on noticing heavy Police presence. Mr Mark Ewuntomah, Deputy Executive Secretary of NCB, told the Ghana News Agency that the drug trade was becoming more sophisticated and needed state-of-the-art equipment and other logistics to combat it. He said trade in cannabis was on the increase due to the premium being attached to it by foreigners who finance its cultivation. Mr Ewuntomah said a single shipment of 19 tons of compressed cannabis worth several millions of dollars was intercepted at the Tema port in the last quarter of 2008.

Mr Ewuntomah said two separate large consignments of cannabis stashed in pineapples and cashew were intercepted since January to date. He attributed the consumption of cannabis to the major cause of admissions in psychiatry hospitals and is responsible for the rise in violent crimes and armed robbery. 22 April 09