419 Gangsters nabbed at Aflao

Aflao, June 13, GNA - Two fraudsters who allegedly planned to defraud an Accra-based businessman to the tune of about 80,000 US dollars, have been nabbed at Aflao.

They were said to be offering for sale a suspected fake medicine that they claimed could make horses to run faster. They are Samuel Agbanyo, 45, the Ghanaian front man of the group and Harrison Davidson Zumah, 33, a Sierra Leonian refugee suspected to be the group leader.

Twelve cartons of the alleged fake drugs, each containing 12 small plastic bottles of the drug marked "Ribkik Horsemacine - Fanaka Product" and an invoice booklet, were seized from the two.

Police also found two duplicates in the seized invoice book, suggesting that some people might have fallen victim to the group. They include an 118,000-dollar receipt duplicate in the name of one Osuman Dalandu, a Togolese, listed as having purchased 36 bottles of the drug and a 52,000-dollar duplicate for a Burkinabe, Bobo Arellanso Assieso, who bought 12 bottles.

Mr Baba Moro, the Aflao District Police Crime Officer, told the GNA that in May the group informed the businessman, one Alhaji Fuseini Maiga, in Accra that they have a drug with the potency to increase a horse's racing performance.

He said the group invited Alhaji Maiga who feigned interest. Alhaji Maiga informed police in Accra about it and he told the group he would meet them at Thanks Hotel at Aflao for the transaction. Alhaji Maiga gave his two sons and one Nana Awudu a parcel containing stones to deliver to the gangsters as 79,200 dollars and they accompanied Agbanyo to Aflao for the transaction.

Following a tip-off from Police Headquarters in Accra, the Aflao police mounted surveillance at the hotel and swooped on them in the hotel room where Zumah was writing a receipt in the name of Maiga. He said Zuma, on whom a UNHCR refugee card issued in his name in 2003 was found, claimed he was a seaman in Cotonou, Benin. He claimed one Alhaji Mohammed gave him the drug to deliver to Alhaji Maiga in Accra.

Agbanyo and Zumah have been remanded by an Aflao circuit court to reappear on June 19.