Cannabis traffickers using ambulances and bullion vans – Interior Minister

The Minister for the Interior, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, has alleged that suspected cannabis traffickers are using ambulances and bullion vans to transport the substance as the government intensifies efforts to combat illegal cultivation and drug trafficking.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, October 12, 2026, Mr Muntaka said security agencies had received intelligence indicating that vehicles associated with legitimate services were being used to conceal and transport cannabis.

He expressed concern about what he described as a casual attitude towards cannabis cultivation in some communities, where residents appeared not to regard the practice as a serious problem.

“In most of our communities, cultivation of these weeds and other things, they take it lightly because they assume that probably it is not really consuming,” he said.

Mr Muntaka said the government was responding through the destruction of cannabis farms, arrests and intelligence-led operations to identify and apprehend those involved in the illegal trade.

“We are dealing with it, we are destroying the farms, we are arresting,” he stated.

Recounting a recent operation, the Minister said security personnel had acted on intelligence that dried cannabis had been concealed in a shrine.

“When the men with the boots got there, they said it’s a shrine, they entered there and collected everything,” he said.

According to Mr Muntaka, the operation subsequently prompted a complaint from the shrine’s owners, who wrote to him alleging that the security personnel had desecrated the sacred premises.

The Minister also alleged that some individuals were exploiting ambulances to transport cannabis instead of patients.

“Sometimes, you’d see an ambulance coming from those areas, and then we will get intel that this is not carrying a sick person; it is carrying weed,” he said.

He added that officers who stopped and searched such vehicles sometimes discovered that they were carrying cannabis rather than sick people.

“You stop it, and then you see that it is full of weed,” he said.

Mr Muntaka further alleged that bullion vans used to transport money for the Bank of Ghana were also being used to move cannabis.

“And then you have bullion; they send Bank of Ghana money there, and then when they are coming they carry weeds,” he stated.

The Minister’s account highlights the methods security agencies are reportedly encountering in their efforts to curb cannabis trafficking and illegal cultivation.

He said the government would continue to pursue those involved through farm destruction, arrests and intelligence-led operations.