Four persons have been busted with 2,172 slabs of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp on Sunday at the Honuta Customs border post in the Ho West District of the Volta Region.

The culprits who were intercepted by officers of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) were said to have concealed the compressed dried leaves in 85 sacks containing local rice parked in a KIA truck with registration number GE 1782-11.

The four named Wahab Abdullah (driver), Evans Isatsaku (drivers mate), Mohammed Omaru (owner of the consignment) and Stephen Avegah (accomplice) were transporting the concealed dried leaves to neighbouring Republic of Togo.

According to the customs officers, upon interrogation, Mohammed Omaru revealed that he cultivated the illicit drug at an island community on the Volta lake called Small Kpeve, packaged and transported it with a canoe to Kpeve before hiring a truck to transport the illicit drug to neighbouring Togo.

Addressing the press, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Ho sector, Frank Cudjoe Ashong emphasized that they would trace the supply chain to identify the production hub of the illicit drug to ensure the cultivators are also apprehended to curb dealing with the illicit commodity.

"We are going to trace the supply chain because it is somebody who cultivated this Indian hemp and the compression was done before exportation. We are not only going to limit ourselves to what we have intercepted. We are going to bend backward to trace where the cultivation was done," he said.

"Most peasants farmers have turned their farms into the cultivation of Indian hemp, so we are treating the general public to give us the information leading to the arrest of the illicit cultivation of the hard drug", he added.

The suspected Indian hemp slabs have been handed over to a team from the national headquarters of the Narcotics Control Board together with the 4 culprits to assist in investigations.

Apparently, the unit cost of a slab at the production hub is GH¢10 but the price aggregates to GH¢100 per slab when it gets to the peddlers in urban areas.