Cannabis was loaded as freight at Bangui M’Poko International Airport onto an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft and found when the shipment arrived in India.[1] Indian authorities then contacted their Ethiopian counterparts to report that the shipment had travelled on an aircraft of Ethiopia’s national carrier.[1] Ethiopian Airlines’ management in Addis Ababa ordered its own services to explain how cannabis entered the freight system and was loaded onto the aircraft.[1]

The airline’s station representative at Bangui, named in the report as Erlens, and a second official, M. Solomon, demanded explanations of how the freight was boarded.[1] The report names the head of freight, Sandos Stevy, and Luango Tedi among staff directly implicated in the handling and control chain for cargo.[1] A customs officer assigned to the tourism service was sanctioned and has been suspended from duty at home.[1] The commissioner handling the case in Bangui is said to have helped block and bury the follow-up to the affair.[1]

The cannabis is reported to have reached India because checks before boarding were deliberately bypassed.[1] Corbeau News Centrafrique says it based its account on freight documents, customs checks, loading registers and exchanges between services after the discovery in India.[1]