The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), through its Manso Adubia taskforce, has executed a decisive enforcement operation at Dawusaso in the Amansie South district of the Ashanti region.
This resulted in the arrest of a Chinese found in active illegal mining the site that was raided.
The NAIMOS operation also led to the burning of several changfan machines mounted directly on the River Offin, and disrupting an entrenched illegal mining activities in which the ‘galamseyers’ had deliberately diverted a section of the river into an artificial dam to facilitate their unlawful extraction.
The operation, conducted between the hours of 1130 and 1530 on Saturday, May 16, 2026, was prompted by credible intelligence pointing to organised illegal mining activity along the Offin corridor at Dawusaso.
Acting on the information received, the field taskforce mobilised from the Manso Adubia operational base and proceeded swiftly to the indicated location. Upon arrival, operatives observed several individuals, including a number of women, actively engaged in illegal mining operations on and along the course of the River Offin.
The suspects took to flight on sighting the taskforce, exploiting the cover of the surrounding terrain to evade apprehension.
A particularly egregious feature of the site was the diversion of sections of the Offin into an artificial dam constructed by the operators to facilitate their activities.
The deliberate redirection of a natural watercourse to serve the operational convenience of an illegal mining syndicate represents a serious assault on the hydrological integrity of the river and on the rights of the downstream communities that depend on its waters for their daily existence.
The decisive advance of the taskforce nonetheless secured the arrest of one Chinese at the site, who identified himself as Xiao Weixin, aged 41 years and resident at Dawusaso.
A search of the suspect and his immediate surroundings produced an Apsonic tricycle, two Gota sets recovered from his person, and one Huawei mobile phone belonging to him, all of which were taken into custody by the taskforce.
In a comprehensive sweep of the broader site, operatives proceeded to set ablaze two changfan machines that had been mounted directly on the River Offin by the operators, neutralising in the process the principal floating apparatus responsible for the systematic devastation of the river at that location.
The taskforce further identified three excavators abandoned at the site, comprising two Caterpillar machines and one Sany machine. Each of the three had its monitor and key removed and carried off by the illegal mining operators ahead of the taskforce’s arrival, in line with the now familiar evasion practice in which the most valuable electronic components are pre-emptively detached to preserve them against enforcement contingencies.
The chassis numbers of all three machines were further found to be invisible to the unaided eye, having been substantially obscured by corrosion, a condition that will materially complicate the formal identification and forfeiture process which in itself is suspected to reflect a deliberate practice rather than mere wear.
The Chinese national has since been escorted to the NAIMOS Secretariat in Accra for further investigation and onward handover to the Ghana Immigration Service for the requisite immigration related action.
In a related development, the taskforce, whilst en route to the principal site, chanced upon a separate group of illegal miners operating in close proximity to the main Dawusaso road.
The operators fled on sighting the taskforce, abandoning one drum of diesel at the scene, which was conveyed away by operatives and is now in the custody of the team.
The Dawusaso operation reaffirms the unrelenting determination of the Secretariat to confront illegal mining wherever it takes hold along the River Offin, and most particularly where operators have grown so emboldened as to redirect the very course of a national waterway to serve their unlawful trade.
NAIMOS assured the public that the diversion of the Offin, the burning of its banks, and the discharge of contaminated water into its currents will be met with consistent and escalating enforcement, and that operatives will continue to return to every site along the river until the Offin runs once again as nature intended.
