The Legon District Police Commander and six other police officers in Accra have been interdicted for their alleged involvement in a gold scam worth nearly GHC 2 million.
DSP Emmanuel Basintale and the six others are to remain on interdiction from the Police Service until final investigations into the case which involves other police officers yet to be identified by the Police Administration. The officers were said to have formed a clique with some civilians including foreign nationals, to defraud a number of people in the gold mineral business, the police has said.
They include police sergeants, corporals, constables and civilians; nana kofi Mensah, Joseph Boakye, Nana Agyei and two others. A Nigerian national was said to have in November 2016 introduced an expatriate who was interested in the gold business in Ghana to Green Global Resource Limited, a licenced mineral company.
According to the Police the company produced five gold bars of high quality in a hotel in Accra as sample, following which the complainant was said to have requested for 13 bars 11 of which tested to be 22 karats while the remaining was 20 karats of gold.
He consequently paid GHC 1.3 million as the price for the 11 bars and was said to have left two accomplices to decide on the price of the remaining two-20 karats gold bars. Some policemen were said to have later stormed the place and arrested the buyer and the two accomplices on claims of dealing in illegal business.
The 13 gold bars were subsequently deposited with the East Legon Police Commander after the bars were verified in the presence of both the complainants and the suspects. However when the case was referred to the Police CID headquarters after two months, all the gold bars tested negative.
According to the Police, the cover of DSP Basintale and his gang were blown when they intercepted a similar case reported at the Achimota Police Station. Again in this case, the gold bars worth GHC 600,000 which were tested at the Precious Minerals Marketing Company Limited, later tested negative when brought to the CID headquarters.
Preliminary police investigation implicated the DSP Basintale and his men leading to their arrest and subsequent interdiction. According to the police, DSP Basintale has also been linked to a third case which is also being investigated.
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