1-hectare cannabis field found at Balegwang, Batcham
On 20 June 2017 Mbouda gendarmes uncovered a one-hectare cannabis plantation at Balegwang in Batcham after residents tipped them off; no grower had been arrested. The force guarded the site and planned to return within days to destroy it.
🇨🇲 Balegwang, Batcham, Bamboutos Department, West Region · Cameroon
Gendarmes of the Mbouda company under Commander Patrice Asseko discovered a
cannabis plantation at Balegwang in Batcham arrondissement in Cameroon’s West
region.[1]The discovery followed tips from local residents about suspicious
movements in the area.[1]The owners had not been found, and the commander
said an investigation would be opened to arrest them.[1]The field lay in a
difficult-to-reach mountainous area about 30 km away, which the gendarmes
reached after walking nearly 25 km on foot.[2]
The plantation covered one hectare.[1]The commander said the most urgent step
was destroying the plantation during a return visit planned within days.[1]Pending destruction, gendarmes barred access to the plantation and set up
surveillance to help catch any suspect.[1]
The owner had not been arrested at the time of the reports.[2]In Cameroon,
cultivating, selling and consuming cannabis is prohibited and punishable by law.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Africtelegraph dates the discovery to 21 June 2017 while Lebledparle's detailed commander account places the operation on the morning of 20 June 2017 after locating the field on 19 June; 20 June is used as the incident date.
No number of plants or cannabis weight was published, so only the one-hectare area is recorded.
No arrest, charge or court outcome was reported; only a planned investigation and a planned destruction visit were announced.
Whether the planned destruction of the plantation actually took place was not reported.
The headline names Baletsie while the article text locates the field precisely at Balegwang in Batcham arrondissement.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Lebledparle: The commander said the operation followed a week of surveillance after residents' reports, with the field located around 22:00 on Monday 19 June 2017 before the team moved in the next morning.
Gendarmes in Mbalmayo arrested Issa A., 26, known as 'Anaconda', in a restaurant on 3 November 2026 and found cannabis, crack, tramadol and diazepam at his home in the Haoussa quarter, which they described as a drug-packaging laboratory. Neither account gave the weight of the Indian hemp or the amount of money seized.
Gendarmes at Gamba's mixed checkpoint in North Cameroon arrested a 21-year-old aide-commerçant travelling from Ngong to Ngaoundéré on the night of 11-12 October 2026. They seized 7 kg of cannabis in 14 packets plus shisha charcoal and tobacco that the suspect said came from Nigeria via Touroua.
On 16 September 2026 gendarmes from the Yokadouma company raided a clandestine cannabis plantation at Massea, about 70 km from Yokadouma, after a four-kilometre trek through forest. They arrested six people, seized seven bags of harvested cannabis, and found a homemade firearm with ten 12-gauge rounds.
On 30 July 2025 Haut-Nyong gendarmes cleared about 20,000 m² of cannabis in remote Mindourou and arrested a snack-bar owner known as Jordan, whom they accused of selling cannabis and tramadol to students near the bilingual high school.
