Weed, knives retrieved as police arrest 50 suspected criminals

An intelligence-led operation by the Ghana Police Service has led to the arrest of over 50 suspected criminals said to be hiding in a forest in the Northern regional capital, Tamale.

According to the Northern Regional Police Crime Officer, Superintendent Bernard Baba Ananga, the Aboabo Forest in Tamale over time had become a hub for criminals within and outside the region where they planned their operations.

He noted that the forest also served as a hideout for wanted criminals who sought refuge there.

Baba Ananga after a police swoop on Saturday told journalists that the decision to storm the forest came after the Tamale police arrested a wanted criminal in the forest about two weeks ago.

He said the swoop was aimed at clamping down on criminal activities including prostitution.

“Criminals took up this area within the forest, patched up camps to do their operations from the forest, those criminals thought that the forest was a no go area and for that matter, they could do whatever they wanted and move in to do all the kinds of narcotics trade, prostitution turning the whole area into a market, they felt the authorities could not come in,” a report by Adomonline.com quoted the Crime Officer.

He noted: “About two weeks past, we arrested one notorious criminal, Asampana Ayini which we handed over to Bolgatanga who was declared wanted, and then he committed a lot of robberies at Bolga, ran into this forest. After the arrest, we gathered that most of the criminals were here and doing all kinds of businesses and any activities.”

The police following the swoop retrieved items and substances including suspected weed, cutlass, knives, motorbikes, plastic chairs among others.

The police also caused destruction to several structures set up as camps for the suspected criminals.