470 bundles of cannabis displayed after six-month Somaliland drive
On 29 July 2021 Somaliland's president viewed a display of more than 470 bundles of cannabis at police headquarters in Hargeisa, packed in sacks and hidden among vegetable sacks imported from Ethiopia. The display closed a January-to-June drive in which police reported seizing 26,800 litres of liquor and 1,055 rolls of hashish and arresting 1,001 suspects.
On 29 July 2021 President Musa Bihi Abdi viewed more than 470 bundles of
cannabis at the Rapid Response Unit quarters beside police headquarters in
Hargeisa.[1]The bundles had been packed in sacks and hidden among
lookalike sacks of vegetables imported from Ethiopia.[1]Interior minister
Mohamed Kahin Ahmed said more than 1,100 people had been jailed in the
preceding six months on smuggled liquor and drug charges.[1]
The six-month drive
Police chief Mohamed Adan Saqadhi had said two days earlier that police seized
26,800 litres of liquor between January and June, about a tenth of what he
believed entered the country.[2]He said officers also confiscated 1,055
rolls of hashish alongside powders, liquid injections and 1,500 bottles of
spirits, and arrested 1,001 suspects.[2]He added that police had identified
cannabis farms on the outskirts of Hargeisa.[2]He described smuggling
methods including cannabis hidden in trucks and stuffed in mattresses, and
farms on the city outskirts and inside homes.[3]An earlier account said the
police chief and army officers had unveiled alcohol hidden in khat sacks, and
that two officers refused a $3,000 bribe offered to free detainees.[4]
Photos and video
Rows of seized liquor bottles laid out on the ground at a Somaliland police display during the July 2021 crackdown, with officers and police vehicles behind them.Photo details
No weight for the 470-plus cannabis bundles was published, so no kilogram figure is recorded.
The 1,001 arrests cover liquor and drug suspects together and the reports do not say how many were cannabis cases.
The minister's figure of more than 1,100 people jailed differs from the police chief's 1,001 arrests and the reports do not reconcile them.
No court outcomes for the arrested suspects were reported.
Only the Somaliland Standard's photograph of the liquor-bottle display had a recoverable direct image address, and no verified photograph of the cannabis bundles was found.
Railway police in Ravenna reported an 18-year-old Italian at liberty after a smell in the station hall led them to about 35 grams of cannabinoids. The Questura said he was already known for drug offences and was also reported for breaching two removal orders.
Bengaluru city police seized 46 kg and 486 grams of ganja and 1 litre and 542 millilitres of hashish oil in raids across eleven police-station areas, an operation in which they arrested 34 people. Police valued all the narcotics seized, including MDMA and cocaine, at Rs 12.61 crore and registered cases under the NDPS Act.
Somaliland police reported arresting a man accused of growing cannabis in the yard of a house he owned in Hargeisa’s Ga’an Libaah district. The published account said traffic police worked with the district station; it reported an arrest and allegation, with no conviction or sentence.
Police in Burao found 904 beer bottles and 1.5 kg of hashish loaded on two abandoned trucks; the traffickers fled, and a court ordered the haul burned and fined the vehicles.