Uganda police destroy 55 acres of cannabis in Interpol's Operation Usalama III
Ugandan police destroyed 55 acres of cannabis plants during the two-day regional Operation Usalama III on 29 and 30 June 2016, run with EAPCCO, SARPCCO and Interpol across 22 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Some 1,500 officers from 22 countries took part in Operation Usalama III, a two-day regional operation on 29 and 30 June 2016 against transnational crime, led by the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization and the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization with Interpol’s support.[1][2]Across the region the operation produced nearly 4,500 arrests.[1][2]
In Uganda, police destroyed 55 acres (about 22.3 hectares) of cannabis plants.[1][2]In the same Ugandan strand of the operation, officers arrested six suspects over wildlife crimes after recovering 20 kilograms of ivory, tortoises, geese, ostrich egg shells and leopard skins, and seized seven guns with more than 300 rounds of ammunition.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Interpolinterpol.int1,500 police in operation targeting crime networks across Eastern and Southern Africa
AfricaNews.itafricanews.it1,500 police in operation targeting crime networks across Eastern and Southern Africa
Open questions the AI reported
Both accounts derive from the same Interpol release; no separate Ugandan press account of the operation could be found.
The precise sites in Uganda where the cannabis was destroyed were not published.
The Interpol page carries a photograph of the destroyed Ugandan plantation, but its direct image address could not be recovered, so it is not listed as media.
Joint forces arrested 66 suspects in a midnight-to-5am sweep of three villages in Busika Town Council, Luweero, where police said networks traded marijuana and opium and planned thefts. Detainees are being screened for charges, with no drug weights or court outcomes reported.
Police at Link Bus Terminal in Arua City arrested Godfrey Eguma with more than 1,000 rolls of suspected marijuana as he prepared to board a bus to Masindi. He remains in custody pending charges.
Police and residents in Warr Sub-County arrested Patrick Odongo on 14 August 2026, uprooting fresh marijuana in his garden and finding dried cannabis in his house after he allegedly severed a gravity-fed water line on 10 August, leaving 146 households without supply.
Uganda's joint Interpol operation Usalama, run from 30 October to 4 November 2019, destroyed 33 cannabis gardens covering about 30 acres in Busia District and netted 21 narcotics arrests, including growers and traffickers.
