Anti-drug police arrested Congolese national Jonathan Alandji at Franceville, Gabon, on 4 February 2022 with a tonne of cannabis resin he was preparing to send by train to Libreville.[1] Alandji was arrested with Gabonese national Brel Tango, alias Kane, for allegedly trying to convey a tonne of cannabis resin to Libreville.[1] After their arrest at Léconi, the two suspected traffickers were placed in preventive detention at the Franceville jail to await their hearing before a judge.[2]
The traffickers had hidden five blocks of cannabis inside five sacks of foufou, a pounded cassava staple also described as manioc flour.[1] Gabonese reporting describes the seizure as five manioc-flour sacks concealing five cannabis packets with a combined weight of one tonne and bound for Libreville.[2] The parcels, already packed for travel by train, were seized in the Mamadou district of Franceville after information was passed to the town’s anti-drug brigade.[1] Police put the market value of the one-tonne load at 15 million FCFA.[2]
The two men were arrested at Léconi as they were preparing to withdraw toward Congo.[1] The Gabonese suspect admitted responsibility and said it was his sixth such load, while the Congolese suspect denied the allegations and said he was implicated only because the first accused lodged at his home.[2] The pair told officers that the load seized in Mamadou was intended for a woman named Véronique Mpinga in Libreville, and they remained in the Haut-Ogooué capital’s central prison awaiting trial.[2]
