Police in the Brong-Ahafo Region burned a four-acre Indian hemp farm at Ahiamankyene, a village near Nsawkaw in the Tain District, in May 2007.[1] The regional commander, Deputy Commissioner Kwaku Ayensu Opare-Addo, said he led 105 policemen to the farm and set it ablaze.[1]
The farm’s suspected owner, Alexander Kuffuor Frimpong, known as Lexis and described as the producer of hiplife musician Batman Samminie, was not found and was believed to be hiding in Kumasi or Accra.[1] Officers arrested two alleged accomplices at the farm, Iddrisu Umar, 25, and the farm’s watchman Samuel Annor Kwame, 21.[1] On the farm police found irrigation equipment drawing water from the Tain River, compressor machines used to package the hemp for export, a copy of the book “Marijuana growers’ guide”, and an underground vault hiding hemp packages.[1]
In a follow-up operation reported on 1 June, police searching houses in the area arrested the chief of Kwaidindin and five others, including a 13-year-old boy, and seized ten sacks of hemp and a sack of hemp seeds.[2] Police said those arrests brought to 18 the number held in connection with the Frimpong case, and that the wanted man had claimed a $120,000 investment in the plantation.[2] The regional commander said police would use all means including Interpol to arrest him, and the Wenchi police boss was interdicted over claims Frimpong paid him 25 million cedis monthly.[2]
