The Minister for the Interior, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, has alleged that suspected cannabis traffickers are using ambulances and bullion vans to transport the substance while security agencies intensify operations against illegal cultivation and drug trafficking.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Mr Muntaka said security agencies had received intelligence suggesting that vehicles associated with legitimate services were being used to conceal and move cannabis.
He expressed concern about what he described as a lack of seriousness towards cannabis cultivation in some communities, where residents allegedly do not consider the practice a major concern.
“In most of our communities, cultivation of these weeds and other things, they take it lightly because they assume that probably it is not really consuming,” he said.
The minister said the government was stepping up efforts to combat the illegal trade through the destruction of cannabis farms, arrests and intelligence-led operations targeting suspected traffickers.
“We are dealing with it, we are destroying the farms, we are arresting,” he stated.
Recounting one operation, Mr Muntaka said security personnel acted on intelligence that dried cannabis had been hidden in a shrine.
“When the men with the boots got there, they said it’s a shrine, they entered there and collected everything,” he recounted.
According to the minister, the operation later attracted a complaint from the shrine’s owners, who wrote to him alleging that the security personnel had desecrated their sacred premises.
Mr Muntaka also claimed that some suspected traffickers were exploiting ambulances to transport cannabis under the guise of conveying patients.
“Sometimes, you’d see an ambulance coming from those areas, and then we will get intel that this is not carrying a sick person; it is carrying weed,” he said.
He added that security officers who intercepted and searched some of the vehicles allegedly discovered that they were carrying cannabis instead of patients.
“You stop it, and then you see that it is full of weed,” he stated.
The minister further alleged that bullion vans used to transport money for the Bank of Ghana were also being used to move cannabis.
“And then you have bullion; they send Bank of Ghana money there, and then when they are coming they carry weeds,” he said.
The allegations point to the challenges confronting security agencies as they seek to disrupt illegal cannabis cultivation and distribution networks.
Mr Muntaka said the government would continue to pursue those suspected of involvement in the trade through farm destruction, arrests and intelligence-led operations.
The minister’s claims, however, were not accompanied by further details about the specific vehicles or individuals allegedly involved.
