Ho: Joint security personnel destroy Indian hemp and unwholesome goods

The Ho Sector Command of Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) with support from other security agencies including the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Ghana Police Service, Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), and the Ghana National Fire Service has destroyed weed substances suspected to be Indian-hemp and unwholesome goods worth GHC 9.2 million Ghana cedis.

These substances were intercepted at various border posts in the Ho collection area of the customs division of the GRA.

More than 274 bags of Indian hemp and unwholesome goods including expired boxes of coffee, cigarettes, and cosmetics were destroyed at Akrofu in the Ho municipality of the Volta Region.

The substances, compressed in slaps, were concealed in fertilizer sacks in an attempt to outwit security agencies at the border posts but such tricks did not work as the security men started searching. The smugglers bolted into the bush leaving their goods and trucks behind.

The Ho Sector Collection Commander of GRA Customs Division, Asst. Commissioner (AC) Felicia Adoboe-Azuma said the exercise to clamp down on criminal activities at the collection border posts started mid-last year.

The Sector Commander warned recalcitrant residents in the area who indulge in smuggling activities would be dealt with according to the law when caught.

AC Adoboe-Azuma stressed that the security agencies in the area would not relent in their efforts to smoke out people who are engaged in cross-border criminal activities in the Ho collection sector.

The Sector Commander said the command had intensified patrols along the various border posts and would arrest persons involved in smuggling activities and prosecute them to serve as a deterrent to those with similar intentions.

She called on sister security agencies to ensure that they collaborate with one another to deal with smugglers and other criminal operatives and ask leaders of various security agencies to resist attempts by smugglers to bribe them.

The Sector Commander said the office of the Customs Division of GRA is open to all the security agencies to ensure effective and efficient strategies of handling smugglers, particularly the recalcitrant ones.

By Robert Abilba