The new West New Britain (WNB) Police Beat Patrol Unit orchestrated the biggest drug bust in the history of the province, confiscating almost 17 tons of marijuana. The new police unit intercepted and busted the drug smuggling operation on the 27th of February. The police unit confiscated one homemade firearm, 7 tons of unopened plastic bags of marijuana worth K 2.1 million, 9 tons of medium plastic bags worth K270, 000 and 1 ton of an opened plastic bag that police officers believe were slowly consumed by the smugglers whilst travelling to the province. 8 male suspects ranging from the ages of 20 to 30 years old were apprehended by the police and faced their court charges yesterday and remained in police custody. According the WNB Provincial Police Commander (PPC) Peter Barkie, the drugs were smuggled to be distributed to the New Guinea Islands region and the street value of the of drugs confiscated is almost equivalent to K3 million. PPC Barkie believes these suspects were just runners and further investigations will be conducted to hopefully apprehend the masterminds behind this drug smuggling operation. The Police Beat Patrol unit was recently established in late February 2024 and was to commenced operations on March 1,st but it took action before its commencement date to make the drug bust. The new police unit was purposely tasked to engage with the community to promote and strengthen the relationship between police and local communities to respond accordingly to community issues, and crime reports in the rural areas, and that big drug bust was a result of that community partnership. Meanwhile, the new police unit is also well supplied with resources to carry out its duties. It has a four- wheel drive off road vehicle (Toyota Land cruiser) for land operations, a dinghy with a 60-horsepower motor for patrolling the waters, and a surveillance drone able to cover wide distances.