NACOB seizes 5 tonnes of cannabis at Buokono, driver held
NACOB and Asesewa district police intercepted a Kia truck at Buokono carrying 124 sacks of cannabis weighing 5 tonnes and worth GH₵500,000, arresting the driver while his accomplice fled. The load had come by boat from Dzemeni in the Volta Region and was bound for Ashaiman.
🇬🇭 Buokono, near Asesewa, Upper Manya Krobo District, Eastern Region · Ghana
The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), working with the Asesewa district police, intercepted a Kia truck with registration number ER 105-13 at Buokono, near Asesewa in the Upper Manya Krobo District.[1][2]Officers found 124 sacks of dried leaves suspected to be cannabis packed onto the truck’s bucket and covered with a tarpaulin.[1][2]
The 124 sacks comprised 72 sacks of compressed leaves holding 4,326 slabs and 52 sacks of uncompressed leaves, with an estimated gross weight of 5 tonnes and a street value of about GH₵500,000.[1][2]NACOB said a late-2017 tip-off had traced a boat loaded with cannabis from Dzemeni in the Volta Region, which offloaded onto the truck near Asesewa for onward transport to Ashaiman in Greater Accra.[1][2]
The driver, Stephen Narteh Sangmortey, was arrested and later remanded in prison custody, while his accomplice fled when officers stopped the vehicle and the purported owner of the consignment, Nicholas Lartey, was still at large.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The seizure was announced on 25 January 2018; NACOB's account dates the tip-off and interception to late 2017, and a later report dates the impoundment to December 2017, so the exact seizure day is uncertain.
No court outcome for the remanded driver was published in these reports.
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The Narcotics Control Commission destroyed 564.39 kilograms of cannabis at Bundase alongside synthetic opioids and codeine-infused cough mixture. The cannabis was valued at US$112,878, and the Ghana Standards Authority confirmed cannabis in samples before destruction.
The Tema Regional Police Command arrested 52-year-old Ibrahim Saani at New York, near Airport Junction, on 25 October 2026, retrieving 37 parcels of suspected Indian hemp and a crusher in an intelligence-led operation. Police say he may have been distributing in the area while feigning mental illness to hide his activities.
GRA Customs' Aflao Preventive Monitoring Unit tracked a black Lexus to Torve on the night of 15 October 2026; the driver fled after a mechanical fault and officers found 1,065 compressed parcels weighing 560.4 kg, worth GH¢11.2 million, now with NACOC.
