The Anambra State Police Command has arrested a 43-year-old man, Patrick Ojele, who allegedly disguised himself as a mentally unstable person while secretly cultivating a marijuana farm in Awka, the state capital.
Police operatives attached to the Operations Department, Awka, arrested the suspect during a routine patrol on Wednesday, along the Awka–Enugu Expressway near the Ngozika Estate.
Spokesman of the command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, said Ojele later led the team to a hidden farm where bags of weeds, suspected to be cannabis sativa, were recovered.
According to Ikenga, the suspect had been operating the farm for over two years under the cover of feigned madness, a tactic that helped him evade suspicion.
He added that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Ikioye Orutugu, has ordered that the suspect be transferred to the Special Anti-Cultism Squad, Enugwu-Ukwu, for discreet investigation to identify his buyers and dismantle the wider supply chain.
The commissioner described the arrest as a reflection of the command’s renewed strategy of cutting off criminal supplies by targeting drug dealers who bankroll cultists and violent gangs across the state.
He urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious individuals concealing illegal activities under false appearances.
The arrest has generated mixed reactions among residents of Awka, many of whom expressed shock that a man assumed to be insane could successfully conceal a thriving cannabis operation for such a long time.
This latest incident comes amid a series of drug-related crackdowns in Anambra. Just last week, police operatives arrested no fewer than 54 suspects for various offences, including drug trafficking, cultism, and kidnapping, during coordinated raids in Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area, and Ifitedunu, Dunukofia LGA. Hard drugs and other banned substances were also recovered in those operations.
Similarly, in May 2025, six suspects were arrested in Isuaniocha, Awka North LGA, for drug trafficking, with dried cannabis recovered from the scene. In another operation earlier this month, police intercepted cannabis worth an estimated N15 million and arrested 53 suspected cultists in different parts of the state.
In a separate operation in Ogbunike, Oyi Local Government Area, operatives stormed the residence of a suspected member of the Aye Confraternity (Black Axe) and recovered a pistol with live ammunition. Nine additional suspects were later arrested in follow-up operations.
Ikenga noted that the suspects are undergoing screening and profiling, and those found culpable will be charged in court. He reaffirmed the command’s commitment to aggressive raids, intelligence-led policing, and community collaboration to rid the state of cultism, drug trafficking, and violent crimes.
