The Anti-smuggling unit of the Ghana Cocoa Board, in collaboration with security operatives, has arrested four suspects for their involvement in the smuggling of more than 100 bags of cocoa beans from Ivory Coast to Ghana.

Addressing a news conference in Sunyani, Joseph Addae Akwaboa, the Bono Regional Minister, said the suspects were arrested in an operation at Nkrankwanta in the Dormaa West District of the region.

Akwaboa said: “The operation led to the interception of a truck loaded with more than 100 bags of cocoa, believed to have been smuggled from Côte d’Ivoire to Ghana.”

Akwaboa said they had a tip-off during his just-ended “Accounting to the People Series” tour to the area, which offered him an opportunity to interact with the people.

During the tour, cocoa farmers in the area raised concerns about the failure of some Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) and cocoa clerks to buy the beans from farmers despite receiving government financial clearance to do so.

Instead, the LBCs and cocoa clerks bought the cocoa beans from smugglers along the Ghana–Côte d’Ivoire borders in the area.

Akwaboa said investigations led to the arrest of suspects (names withheld for security reasons), adding that they had been detained and are assisting police investigations, and assured that the suspects would be prosecuted soon.

He indicated that security had intensified operations across various smuggling hotspots in the region to deal with smuggling and other related crimes.

Akwaboa affirmed the government’s commitment to protecting the integrity of the nation’s cocoa industry by ensuring that the socio-economic conditions of hardworking cocoa farmers are improved.

He urged the public to desist from politicising the cocoa purchasing process for personal or selfish gain and instead think about the interest of the nation.