The Mbé gendarmerie brigade and Hamadou Bouba, prosecutor for the Vina courts, conducted a joint operation at Mbé in the Vina department.[1] Acting on information, the Mbé gendarmes moved in once the van reached the Adamaoua Region.[1] The team set an ambush downhill on the slopes of the Mbé cliff and had the van stop for a gendarmerie check.[1] The three people in the van were the driver, his aide and the owner of the suspect merchandise, who had set off from Bafoussam in the West Region the previous weekend.[1] All three passengers confessed during their hearings.[1] They were immediately held for detention, transport and delivery of narcotics, according to security sources.[1] They were expected to be tried in the local courts within days.[1]
Officers found cannabis sacks hidden with cabbages and seized more than 200 kg of cannabis.[1] The van was bound for Kousseri in Logone-et-Chari in the Far North Region.[1] En route the occupants had buried cannabis in jute sacks and disguised the new parcels to look like food supplies bound for the Far North.[1] The load from Bafoussam had passed checkpoints along the Bafoussam-Yaoundé-Bertoua-Ngaoundéré road hidden under sacks of cabbage presented as food for northern residents.[2] The Mbé brigade near Ngaoundéré seized the van-load of more than 200 kg bound for Kousséri town in the Far North.[2]
Prosecutor Bouba said that given its destination the seized cannabis could have supplied Boko Haram in the Far North.[1][2] He said residents, security forces and administrative, judicial and traditional authorities had a duty to break its supply chain if it passed through their area.[1]
