Another wee cartel busted

Bekwai police in the Ashanti Region have smashed an alleged drug-peddling network, confiscating quantities of substance believed to be cannabis, popularly known as Indian hemp or wee. They arrested two people in connection with the purported illicit trade.

The suspects, Nana Agyeman, 40 and Ernest Akanyo, 26, are suspected of smuggling the Indian hemp and peddling it in the Bekwai municipality.

The latest seizure of the substance comes after a major breakthrough by the Ashanti Regional police command on the wee hours of last week Thursday, impounding several quantities of the narcotic drug that were concealed in a water tanker bound for Kumasi from Kwame Danso in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

The arrest followed two successful raids at the dens of the suspected criminal gangs at Essumeja and Bekwai townships in coordinated police operations led by ASP Edward Obeng Boateng, the Bekwai municipal police commander.

On July 2, 2015, the police arrested Nana Agyeman, who had been on the law enforcement agents’ radar, ASP Obeng Boateng narrated.

The raids were carried out with both suspects (Nana Agyeman and Ernest Akanyo) being the prime targets, and investigators believe the traffickers belong to a drug cartel and that they had carried the substance to the Bekwai municipality for sale.

Police said they were also investigating whether the suspects and their gangs controlled the entire chain of the drug business – from production to packing, storage, transporting to Bekwai and its surrounding communities.

A Bekwai circuit court, presided over by Fredrick Nawura, has since granted bail to the suspects in the sum of GHc 20,000 with one surety each to be justified – on health grounds – to reappear before it on August 20, 2015.