A team of 10 Narcotics Control Board officials and 11 Ghana Navy personnel raided a makeshift wooden warehouse along the coast near Keta on 14 March 2020, after investigations into cannabis cultivation and production in the Volta Region.[1] They retrieved 159 large sacks containing 12,555 compressed slabs of a substance suspected to be cannabis, then described as the largest such haul in the country.[1][2] A young man found guarding the drugs was arrested; under questioning he named one E.K. as the owner of the warehouse and the drugs but could not say where E.K. was.[1]
The arrested guard, 48-year-old John Aristotle Nuade, was transported with the drugs to Accra to assist the board’s investigations.[1] He was arraigned before the High Court in Accra the day before the report and remanded in police custody to reappear on 31 March.[1]
The board put the street value at 12 million cedis, calculated at 1,000 cedis per slab, noting a slab could fetch between 1,000 and 1,500 cedis depending on quality and market.[1] Its spokesman said dealers had switched from road to sea transport under pressure from road checkpoints, using large canoes and boats to move cannabis from Keta’s shores at night to destinations across the country and the sub-region.[1]
