He said, “It appears Indian hemp is a lucrative business for farmers in the mid-Volta, particularly in the Kpando, South Dayi and Biakoye districts, as well as the Hohoe Municipality.”
Daily Guide’s investigations has also revealed that wee production has become lucrative because it receives huge funding from some drug barons in the country and expatriates who consider the Volta Region as a conducive place to undertake this illegal trade.
The trade has also experienced an upgrading in terms of how the substance is transported from the farms to middlemen and later to other buyers and destinations both inland and beyond the shores of Ghana.
A source who has seen some of these farms said the funded Indian hemp farms were heavily irrigated and guarded by ‘machomen’. More so, they are cultivated amidst cassava farms to prevent any suspicions and detection. In the last four months, most of the suspects arrested in connection with wee possession had the substance expertly sealed and packaged in brief or suitcases, or in travelling bags and baskets or sacks.
The substance is sometimes mixed with other legitimate items like slippers, clothes, food items and many others, depending on which carrier is used to convey them. The Volta Regional Police Command, led by ACP Alex Bedie, has arrested as many of the suspects as possible. The latest amongst them is a 30-year-old farmer, Forster Atubrah, who was arrested last Wednesday evening at the Asikuma Junction for possessing 23 parcels of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp.
ACP Alex Bedie, who disclosed this to DAILY GUIDE, said Forster was arrested by some highway patrol personnel who spotted the taxi cab at the Asikuma Junction and suspected the movement of the vehicle and its occupants. They immediately confronted the taxi driver and requested to search the taxi cab.
Upon the search, they found a brief case stuffed with 23 expertly sealed parcels of dried leaves suspected to be Marijuana. When interrogated, the taxi driver identified Forster as the owner of the substance, adding that he had picked him up from Dzemeni and was sending him to Asikuma.
Foster admitted ownership of the substance and claimed he bought it at the Dzemeni market from some people he could not identify. He noted that it cost him GH¢320. He claimed he was going to sell the suspected wee at the Kasoa market in the Central region. Forster Atubrah refused to identify the persons he was going to sell the wee to.
ACP Alex Bedie said the accused was being processed to be arraigned before court. Meanwhile, the police are working hard to locate the source of the suspected wee.
The regional commander used the occasion to urge all highway patrol teams and border personnel to be vigilant and help clamp down on the Indian hemp trade in the region. He also asked the general public to volunteer information to the police command.
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