A 31-year-old man is in custody after officers say they found 16 sacks of dried leaves and a hidden plantation at Mangoase in the Volta Region.
A routine boat patrol along the Volta Lake has led to the arrest of a 31-year-old man suspected of growing cannabis at Mangoase, a community in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region.
The suspect has been named by police as Vincent Lotsu. Officers of the Marine Police unit stationed at Kpando picked him up on Tuesday, 13 October 2026. The Marine Police is the arm of the Ghana Police Service that patrols rivers, lakes and other inland waters.
What officers say they found
According to a statement from the Volta North Regional Police Command, reported by The Ghana Report, the patrol team came across a fenced wooden structure standing along the lake. Behind that structure, officers say, was a plantation of plants suspected to be cannabis.
Police also say they recovered 16 sacks of dried leaves believed to be cannabis, which were in the suspect's possession at the time of the arrest.
Lotsu is being held on suspicion of unlawful cultivation and possession of narcotic substances.
Where the case stands now
The regional command issued its statement on Friday, 16 October, three days after the arrest.
The suspect and the seized items have been transferred to the Kpando Police Divisional Investigation Department, which is now handling the case.
The sacks of dried leaves have been sent to the police crime laboratory for testing. That step matters legally: until the laboratory confirms what the plant material actually is, the substance remains only a suspected narcotic, and any charge that follows will rest heavily on that result.
Lotsu remains in police custody and is assisting with investigations. Police have not said when he is expected to appear in court.
Why the location matters
The Volta Lake is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world and stretches across several districts, with many shoreline communities reachable mainly by boat. That makes stretches of the shoreline difficult to monitor by road, which is part of the reason the police maintain a marine unit on the lake.
Central Tongu, where Mangoase is located, sits in the lower part of the Volta Region along the river system.
For Ghanaians following from the United States and elsewhere abroad, this is the kind of enforcement action that rarely makes national headlines but shows how policing works outside the big cities, where patrols on water can turn up cases that road checkpoints would never reach.
No other arrests have been announced in connection with the case, and police have not indicated whether anyone else is being sought.
At this stage, the allegations against Lotsu have not been tested in court.
