The national anti–cocoa smuggling taskforce division of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has intercepted smuggled cocoa beans in Mpraeso, in the Kwahu South Municipality of the Eastern Region.
A total of 130 bags of cocoa beans were smuggled from Suhum, with an exit through Mpraeso, and then transported across the Afram Plains River to Kwahu Afram Plains South.
From there, the smugglers had planned to take the beans through the Volta Region and finally enter Togo.
A team of national security personnel in the Eastern Region received a tip-off while embarking on their daily routine surveillance within the Kwahu block, which led to the arrest of the smugglers.
Kwasi Edem, 55, and Dennis Hodo, a 28-year-old tipper truck driver, are in police custody at the Mpraeso Central Police Station and assisting in investigations.
The smugglers had stuffed 130 cocoa bean bags in the tipper truck.
They covered the surface with chippings, an innovative way to deceive security agencies into thinking they were doing something legitimate.
During an interview with the media, the municipal chief executive for Kwahu South, Emmanuel Atta Ofori Snr, stated that the operation which they had initiated two years ago has resulted in the arrest of smugglers leaving Ghana to enter Togo through the same corridors.
He noted, “My district will not be used as an exit point for people to smuggle Ghanaian natural resources to neighbouring countries.”
He further called on the various metropolitan, municipal, and district chief executives (MMDCEs) to tighten security in their various districts and borders to ensure that the natural resources of the country especially cocoa, remain in Ghana and curb the issue of smuggling.
With the price of cocoa at GHC2,070, the smugglers could have made a whopping GHC269,100.
Reporting by John Attafuah in the Eastern Region
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