The refugee town of Ampain in the Ellembelle constituency of the Western Region was thrown into a state of shock when news broke that the police in the area have intercepted a cargo truck loaded with 50 bales of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp.
According to sources, the cargo truck was from Accra and heading towards Jawayharf in the Jomoro district; and loaded with compressed parcels of dried leaves covered with empty barrels and used tyres, when the police intercepted it.
The driver George Anaman, 40, and his mate Dominic Essien, 35, were taken to the Axim Police Station where they were detained and the vehicle containing the exhibit impounded.
The driver and his mate with the exhibits were later handed over to the Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Ghana Police Service at Sekondi for investigations.
The two suspects were subsequently put before a Takoradi Circuit Court,
presided over by Charles Nimako and remanded into prison custody to re-appear before it on October 2, 2013. Their pleas were not taken.
The prosecutor in the case, Inspector Fuseini Yakubu, told DAILY GUIDE that on August 9, 2013 at about 9:00pm, a police patrol team, led by Corporal James Akwando, intercepted a Mercedes Benz Cargo truck with registration number WR 1587X at Ampain, near Essiama in the Ellembelle District.
When the driver was interrogated, he stated that the 50 bales contained used clothing and were loaded into his truck by a colleague driver named Nyamekye because the friend’s vehicle developed a mechanical fault.
Inspector Yakubu pointed out that the vehicle containing the dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp was being kept at the Sekondi District Police station awaiting the arrival of the personnel from the Forensic Laboratory in Accra for analytical examination.
