The National Anti-Cocoa Smuggling Task Force, comprising personnel from the Ministry of National Security and Ghana Cocoa Board, in an intelligence-led operation have intercepted two trucks, with registration numbers AS 2653-12 and GS 4220-12, loaded with about 400 bags of cocoa beans for smuggling to neighbouring Togo.
This is the third time the task force has impounded such trucks at Adawso in the Kwahu South Municipality of the Eastern Region.
Onua TV’s Yaa Yeboah Boamah reports the consignment originated from Suhum and was to be smuggled to the Republic of Togo via the Afram River.
The task force, with assistance from the Formed Police Unit, arrested a total of 12 suspects and one at large.
Those arrested include drivers, mates, boat operators, and loading boys from Jemeni in the Volta region, who came with a huge boat to cart the goods.
Kwahu South Municipal Chief Executive, Emmanuel Atta Ofori Snr., has been telling Yaa Yeboah Boamah that the suspects decided to bribe the officers with an amount of GHC 80,000.00.
He says the police, after taking the money, went ahead to arrest them.
The MCE urged his colleagues and state security agencies to be patriotic in the fight against cocoa smuggling whilst calling on the prosecution and judiciary to be swift with the issue.
