Police also seized 2,040 pellets of cannabis from one of the suspects identified as Vedaste Niyomurengezi.

Niyomurengezi was at the time trafficking the narcotics to Kigali.

"He was traveling in a public vehicle, which was stopped at a roadblock at about 11a.m, along Rubavu-Musanze highway, searched and the narcotics were found concealed in a sack of beans and carrots," CIP Rukundo Mucyo, the Western Region Political and Civic Education Officer (RPCEO), said.

Information on Niyomurengezi, he added, was provided by residents in Rubavu.

"Niyomurengezi, after his arrest, disclosed one Elizabeth Niragire as his supplier as well as one Marie Chantal Nyirategera, who was storing the narcotics before being supplied to retailers. The two accomplices were also arrested later in Kanyirabirori cell also in Kanzenze sector," said CIP Rukundo.

Niyomurengezi further said that Niragire is their ringleader and that she was supposed to pay him Rwf30,000 upon delivering the narcotics to her client in Kigali.

They were all handed over to RIB at Kanama station for further investigations as the search for other members of the same ring is still underway.

Cannabis is classified as a very severe narcotic drug in Rwanda.

Article 263 of law No. 68/2018 of 30/08/2018 determining offenses and penalties in general states that any person, who unlawfully produces, transforms, transports, stores, gives to another or who sells narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, commits an offence.

Upon conviction for very severe narcotics, the offender faces between 20 years and life imprisonment, and a fine of between Rwf20 million and Rwf30 million.