Customs seize 116.6 kg of cannabis hidden in ginger at Eboro, Gabon
Gabonese customs officers stopped a van at the Eboro border post near Bitam on 21 May 2022 and found 116.6 kg of cannabis hidden among sacks of ginger, with the load bound for Libreville. The driver and his passenger, both Gabonese, were handed to the gendarmerie, and the driver was remanded to Oyem central prison after admitting the facts to a prosecutor.
Customs officers of the central customs bureau in Bitam stopped a van at the
Eboro border post on 21 May 2022 and seized116.6 kg of Indian hemp, the
cannabis the report describes.[1]
The vehicle was a Mitsubishi stopped for a routine check at Eboro, and it was
carrying the two men and a load of fresh food bound for Libreville.[2]The
cannabis had been loaded at the Marché mondial on the Cameroonian side and was
hidden among sacks of ginger in the van, which was to unload at the Venez-voir
market in Libreville.[1]An officer opened an unidentified bundle in a ginger
sack, found cannabis, searched every sack and then weighed the load.[2]
Bitam sits at the meeting of the Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea borders
and is increasingly a centre of drug trafficking.[1]
Photos and video
The seized cargo held pending the investigation, a screenshot published by the daily L'Union. Credit: Capture d'écran/L'UnionPhoto details
Medias241medias241.gaFRBITAM : 116,6 KG DE CHANVRE INDIEN EN PROVENANCE DU CAMEROUN SAISIS PAR LA DOUANE
Open questions the AI reported
Gabonreview says the driver and his passenger were both arrested, while Medias241 says the passenger was cleared and only the driver was imprisoned; no charge or outcome for the passenger is reported.
The sources give no market value for the 116.6 kg and no count of packages beyond a rough description of about ten sacks.
No court outcome beyond the driver's preventive detention at Oyem central prison is reported.
Only two opened outlets covered the event, and both draw on the same L'Union report.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Gabonreview: The driver and his passenger, both Gabonese, were arrested and handed to the gendarmerie brigade at Eboro, and the cargo was confiscated pending investigation.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Gabonreview: Taken before the prosecutor, the driver admitted the facts and was placed in preventive detention at Oyem central prison.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Medias241: Medias241 reported that about ten sacks held the bales of cannabis, more than 116 kg in all.
Gabonese security and intelligence forces dismantled a cross-border drug network in Woleu-Ntem, seizing nearly 500 bundles of cannabis valued at about 16 million CFA francs. Investigators intercepted the drugs in Bitam and Méyo-Kyé near the Cameroon border and detained several suspects, including a woman near 70 and a 22-year-old student.
The Mouila prosecutor's office destroyed 750 kg of cannabis in fifteen 50 kg sacks on court orders around 14 October 2026. The drug, worth about 10 million FCFA, came from seizures stored under seal over several years.
Gabonese gendarmes seized 80 kg of cannabis in 225 bundles at Malinga near the Congolese border, arresting three suspects travelling in a food-transport vehicle. The haul was valued at nearly 10 million CFA francs and placed under seal pending a prosecutor-ordered investigation.
Gabon's OCLAD and three intelligence services seized 1.32 tonnes of cannabis, packed in 65 sacks and valued at nearly 800 million CFA francs, from a boat arriving from Nigeria. Eight Nigerian, Beninese, Togolese and Gabonese suspects were brought before the prosecutor and jailed at Libreville central prison on 3 August 2026.
