Bangui police seize 125.5 kg of cannabis at Combattant, arrest two
An anti-drug unit backed by the OCRB searched a former Anti-Balaka leader's home in Bangui's Combattant quarter on 6 November 2020, finding 15 sacks of cannabis herb weighing 125.5 kg and over a hundred war cartridges, and arrested two relatives. The OCLAD said it would seek a prosecutor's order to incinerate the cannabis.
🇨🇫 Combattant quarter, eighth arrondissement, Bangui · Central African Republic
Officers of the Central African anti-drug office, the Office central de lutte
anti drogue (OCLAD), backed by the anti-banditry squad OCRB, searched a home in
Bangui’s Combattant quarter on Friday 6 November 2020 and arrested two suspects
from the same family.[1]The search found 15 sacks of cannabis herb, which the
OCLAD put at a total weight of 125.5 kilograms.[1]Police also seized more
than a hundred Masse 36 war cartridges at the house.[1]The home belonged to a
former Anti-Balaka self-defence militia leader known as “Chocolat”, who was
already held at Ngaragba prison, according to the police account.[1]
The deputy director of the OCRB said one of the two arrested men was the
Anti-Balaka leader’s accomplice and that war munitions were found on the other.[1]One suspect said the war munitions were his own stock, which he had kept to
hand over at disarmament, and that he was surprised to be arrested.[1]The
OCLAD said it would write to the public prosecutor to obtain an order to
incinerate the cannabis.[1]The article’s headline and opening paragraph put
the haul at more than 127 kilograms, the figure the OCLAD first gave, while its
commissioner later stated 125.5 kilograms.[1]The article links the raid to
robberies and thefts that it says have become common in the Combattant quarter
and the eighth arrondissement.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The OCLAD gave two weights for the same 15 sacks: more than 127 kilograms in the headline and opening paragraph, and 125.5 kilograms in the commissioner's quoted statement; the report records 125.5 kilograms for the cannabis figure and gives both in the text.
The article gives no figure for the amount of war munitions beyond more than a hundred Masse 36 cartridges, and they are excluded from cannabis figures.
No charges, indictment or court outcome were reported; the OCRB said it would investigate and bring the two suspects before a court, and the OCLAD said it would ask the prosecutor for an incineration order.
Only one report of this raid could be opened after searching in French and English, and a search result for a Bangui anti-drug operation on 18 and 20 February 2020 is a different, earlier event not used here.
The identities of the two arrested suspects were not published, and their exact relationship to each other and to the former Anti-Balaka leader was not given.
The article's own publication date is 7 November 2020; 6 November 2020 is the Friday on which the article places the search.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Corbeau News Centrafrique: The deputy director said the quantity was industrial, that investigators would question the two men and that they would be brought before a court.
Cannabis loaded as freight at Bangui M'Poko International Airport on an Ethiopian Airlines flight was discovered when the shipment reached India, prompting inquiries between Indian authorities, the airline and its Bangui station. Corbeau News Centrafrique names freight and customs staff in the control chain; no arrests or court case were reported.
The anti-drug office destroyed seized cannabis and other products after operations along the Oubangui river, in Boy-Rabe and at Combattant market. Radio Ndeke Luka reported that the seizures took place from 14 to 20 October, before the destruction on 5 November.
A joint security operation in Ouandago had led to eleven arrests and the seizure of eleven homemade weapons and over ten kilograms of cannabis, MINUSCA reported. The operation responded to abuses by a self-defence group; the figures were a mid-operation report.
Central African Republic's anti-drug office seized 40 kilograms of cannabis in five Bangui neighbourhoods on 27 February 2013, during an operation it called "coup de poing". Officers arrested 49 people, 29 Congolese women and 20 Congolese and Central African men, and said they had started proceedings to bring them before Bangui's high court.
