Blacksmith Arrested For Illegally Manufacturing Guns

A 35-year-old blacksmith has been arrested for allegedly manufacturing guns and selling them to robbers and land guards. The suspect, Kojo Okyere, was arrested when he was in the process of delivering some of his products to undercover agents at a price of GH�800 each After his arrest, the police retrieved about 50 different types of guns and gun accessories, including butts, cartridges and engines, from his workshop at Awutu Osimpo in the Central Region. Undercover operatives The Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Prosper Ablorh, told journalists in Accra that the police received information that a blacksmith at Awutu Osimpo was manufacturing locally made pistols and shotguns which he supplied to robbers and land guards. On May 27, 2014, personnel from the Anti-Armed Robbery Squad at the CID Headquarters were dispatched to the area. The suspect offered to sell pistols to the undercover police operatives and �the police immediately arrested him in the course of delivering the weapons�. Warning Mr Ablorh said when the police searched Okyere�s workshop, they found nine pistols, 13 single-barrelled guns, 24 gun barrels, a double-barrel gun, five gun butts, three live cartridges and 16 empty cartridge shells. Mr Ablorh explained that blacksmiths were only licensed to repair shotguns �but they abuse the use of the licence and cannibalise the barrels of the shotguns and use them to manufacture pistols�. He said the blacksmiths then supplied the weapons to robbers and land guards, resulting in the increasing use of locally made pistols or guns for nefarious activities. �Such recalcitrant blacksmiths will be smoked out and prosecuted,� he stated.