Operatives of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) have busted a member of a money-laundering syndicate in the country.
The suspect, Darwich Hussein, 38, a Lebanese, who was travelling to Beirut, Lebanon, was arrested with $1.4 million and 256,000 euros in his carry-on bag at the KIA in Accra last Monday.
Arrest
According to the Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board, Mr Francis Torkonoo, the suspect was arrested while going through departure formalities at the KIA.
Upon reaching the NACOB checkpoint, it was realized that Hussein was in a hurry to board the plane with a large carry-on bag, thus arousing the suspicion of the security operatives who demanded to conduct a search on him.
Mr Torkonoo said when the carry-on bag was opened, it contained some neatly parcelled items covered with three T-shirts.
And when the parcels were subsequently unwrapped, the officers found bundles of dollar and euro bills.
Hussein was, therefore, arrested and taken to the NACOB Headquarters where the money, totalling $1.4 million and 256, 000 euros, was counted.
According to Mr Torkonoo, there was no evidence that the money was declared at the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Ownership
The suspect told investigators that the money belonged to him and that he was the Managing Director of Lamo Industries Limited, fabricators of aluminium profiles and metal forging, which was registered in Ghana in 2013.
He said the company was located at Block G of the Asokwa Industrial Area in Kumasi, but when probed further, he changed the narrative by claiming that the company had collapsed for which reason he decided to sell all his assets and take the money back to his country, Lebanon.
The suspect also alleged that after the company was liquidated, he was employed at R. C. Rema Company Limited where salaries paid to him accumulated to the tune of $1.4 million.
When pressed further, Husein mentioned the name of another Lebanese as the one who gave him the money to be delivered to his business partners in Lebanon.
Cedi depreciation
The NACOB executive secretary said activities by money launderers could be a contributory factor to the recurrent depreciation of the Ghanaian currency and, therefore, reminded businesses and the travelling public that anybody with such large sums of foreign currency had to declare them at the airport.
He said based on activities of money launderers in the country, security agencies had intensified their surveillance on them.
Mr Torkonoo said the suspect would be put before court after investigations.
Source: Graphic.com
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you are completely ***barred word*** of the extent of money laundering that takes place in our region. you need to be in their world to know the huge amount of illicit financial flows in and out of our boarders. what goes through the banks are not even up to 20% of the monies people launder to trade. I can give you names of specific big businesses in ghana and check the amount of foreign transfers against the quantum of goods in their warehouses and compare. whether what went through the bank can buy the goods you see at their warehouses. Illicit financial flow is a huge challenge and impacting our economies badly.
See his face like Judas Iscariot.
I BELEIVE THAT HE REFUSED TO PAY OR BRIBED AND did not WASHED HIS HANDS WELL WITH THE AGENTS.THESE RATS IN OUR COUNTRY ARE A MESS TO OUR ECONOMY: BECAUSE they need HUGE SUMS OF MONEY TO BUY GUNS AND AMMUNITION TO HELP TERRORISTS.a brother of NDC YAMIN-AM TALKING OF HIS COLOUR,WE ARE WITH THEM OVER HERE IN EUROPE.SINCE WE HAVE SOLD OUR BIRTH RIGHT TO THESE RATS BETTER GET THE MONEY AND LET HIM CONTINUE HIS JOURNEY.SALUTE
@GLOBAL CITIZEN, PLEASE BE ABREAST WITH THE LAWS ON TRAVELLING BEFORE MAKING SUCH ASSERTION.
A body responsible for checking drug trafficking very busy with money laundering. For some reasons i dont even believe this story. This for me is more of harassing innocent business man who has made his money and going wherever he wants to go with it. Unless you can establish that it is drug money, I think its not within ur remit to discriminate against him unnecessarily. What are the police and the custom officials and even the immigration doing that the KIA that it has to be NACOB taking this action? nhwehw3 him oo.
but why should u be surprise of thie matter?this is not a new thng,not the airport alone pls go to the borders and see the way people smuggle these things.its the rich men who does all this.they just want the dollar to go higher then they become happy.yes because most of them do dollar bussiness.since i was born ive never seen the dollar coming down for at least one year mpo.we r just worrying ourself
Dee your perfectly right.
When l hear intellectuals arguing that importers are a major contributing factor in the cedi depreciation, l laugh. How many importers carry cash to travel apart from a few traders. Most transactions are done through direct transfers from banks in which case the black market is not involved.Most of these foreigners are money launderers and they use a particular airline to send money out of the country. They have seen Ghanaians do not love their country and we are selfish so they manage to bribe their way through.