The men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Ogun State
command, have impounded two purposely-built bullion vans and a Ford bus
loaded with bags and parcels of Cannabis Sativa popularly known as
Indian hemp.
The two vans, with number plates, FKJ 731 XQ and LSR 837 XR
respectively, were impounded in Ijebu Igbo area of the state, where the
suspects had abandoned them.
Concealed inside the vans were 42 bags of the illicit drug, weighing 512 kilogrammes.
Omar al-Bashir, pictured earlier this week, is wanted by the ICC for war crimes
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes, has left South Africa, pre-empting a court ruling over an international warrant for his arrest.
The Pretoria High Court was due to decide whether he should be handed over to the International Criminal Court, which has charged him with the crimes.
Mr Bashir was in Johannesburg for an African Union (AU) summit.
A news conference will be held in Sudan's capital upon his arrival.
A South African judge, Dunstan Mlambo, said the failure to arrest Mr Bashir had violated the country's constitution.
Mr Bashir had been barred by a court order from leaving the country until the arrest application had been considered.
An aircraft said to be carrying Mr Bashir takes off from an air base near Pretoria
The Sudanese leader is accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide during the Darfur conflict.
The UN says that about 300,000 people in Sudan have died since fighting began in 2003. More than 1.4 million people are thought to have fled their homes.
Government forces and allied Arab militias are accused of targeting black African civilians in the fight against rebels.
At the hearing at the Pretoria High Court, the lawyer representing the South African government said Mr Bashir's name was not on the list of passengers who took off earlier.
But the Sudanese state minister for information has told Reuters news agency that Mr Bashir's plane was expected to land in Khartoum at about 18:30 local time (1530 GMT).
It is unlikely that South Africa will face sanctions for allowing Mr Bashir to leave the country even after a court order barred him from doing so, says the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Pretoria.
A number of African countries have in the past decided not to co-operate with the ICC. The court has been accused of racism and bias against African leaders.
So as things stand, Mr Bashir appears to have left South Africa with the blessing of the African Union, our correspondent says.
Media captionThere has been an "erosion of trust" in the ICC in South Africa, says counsel Karim Khan
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the ICC's warrant for the arrest of Mr Bashir must be implemented by countries who have signed up to the court's statutes.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest anyone charged by the court.
Press review: 'A precedent for other leaders'
The South African press has been considering the repercussions of the attempt to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who had been attending an AU summit.
IOL News said Mr Bashir's departure would leave "a major constitutional and diplomatic crisis and a big question mark over South Africa's continued membership of the ICC".
The Cape Times said the decision to invite the Sudanese president, despite his indictment by the ICC, had "exposed the fact that the AU considers the ICC largely irrelevant".
"This has the potential to sound the death knell of the ICC," the newspaper said, adding that the arrest "would set a precedent for other leaders on the continent who could be subject to the criminal jurisdiction of the ICC for their actions".
Julian Nicolls, a senior trial lawyer at the ICC, told the BBC that the court would continue to seek Mr Bashir's arrest, and warned that South Africa could be punished for defying the court's orders.
"We will evaluate what action to take next regarding South Africa's failure to arrest and transfer Mr Bashir," he said.
Kenneth Roth, the director of advocacy group Human Rights Watch, tweeted that South Africa appeared to have "shamefully flouted" the ICC and domestic court to free a man "wanted for mass murder of Africans".
The conflict in Darfur has forced more than a million people from their homes
Darfur conflict: Key points
Fighting began in 2003 when black African rebels in Darfur took up arms, accusing the government of neglect
Pro-government Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, accused of responding with ethnic cleansing
In 2008, the UN estimated that 300,000 people had died because of the war, though Khartoum disputes the figure
More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes
In 2010, the ICC charged President Bashir with genocide in relation to the Darfur conflict
There have been several peace processes, but fighting continues, with numerous armed groups now active
