East Legon Police commander Emmanuel Basintale and three other officers at that station have been arrested for their roles in a gold fraud.
The four are said to be part of a gold fraud syndicate duping several gold dealers of amounts running into several millions of cedis.
A year- long investigation by the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service led to the arrest of the commander and his accomplices.
The CID gave the names of the four policemen as RSM John Savour, General Corporal Baleto Buafour, General Corporal Ignatius Asamoah Mensah and Detective Corporal Cyrus Conduah.
There were also some civilian accomplices named as Anthony Yaw Osei, alias Wofa; Frederick Kofi Appiah, alias Nana Agyei; William Hansua and George Yeboah.
Two others, a chief and a queen mother from Tarkwa in the Western Region are currently at large.
The syndicate, believed to be led by DSP Basintale, is alleged to have defrauded Green Global Resources Company Limited of GH¢1.3 million under the pretext of selling 13 gold bars to the company.
According to the Director of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, Superintendent Cephas Arthur, the arrest of the East Legon District Police Commander and his accomplices followed intensive investigations by the CID from 2016.
Revealing the modus operandi of the suspects, he said “DSP Basintale and his gang have been selling gold bars to prospective buyers, only to return and arrest the buyers after payment has been made”.
One of the victims, a French businessman said the activities of the police were atrocious.
According to Atrous Yazid, his company had gone through the process of testing and buying the gold worth $160,000 but as soon as the amount was paid three police men in uniforms and others in plain clothes accosted them beat them and put them in cells for a day.
He said they lost the gold as well as the amount of money they paid for the gold.
“I feel sorry for Ghanaians. If they have to live with this kind of police then it is terrible,” he said.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
