An ex-Police Constable, Seth Dzamesi, formerly of the Striking Force Unit, has been arrested, together with six others, for duping a Belgian of 7,200 euros on the pretext of supplying him with gold.

Dzamesi, who was dismissed from the service two years ago for fraud and gross indiscipline, was one of the accomplices of Kwaku Amoakohene, 35, a car dealer at Abeka Lapaz, who lured the Belgian, Joseph Andre Meulders, into the country through the Internet and managed to collect the money from him.

The others are Justice Efeson, 25, a Nigerian; Ruky Nelson, 27; Nana Owusu, 25; Devans Ameyaw, 29, and Efe Moses.

The suspects were alleged to have used the picture of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), together with other documents purported to have been signed by top governmental officials, to convince the Belgian of the genuineness of the business deal.

According to the head of the Commercial Crime Unit (CCU) of the CID, Superintendent Maame Yaa Tiwaa, Meulders established contact with the group on the Internet six months ago and after several correspondences he was lured into the country.

Meulders, she said, arrived in the country on May 12, 2008 and checked into a hotel at East Legon.

Supt Tiwaa said the operatives - who presented their leader, Amoakohene, as a diplomat from Togo - were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service at the hotel where they had gone to meet with Meulders.

Amoakohene - who is reported to have arrived at the hotel in a Mercedes Benz saloon car with a Togolese registration number and flying the national flag of Togo - had told Meulders that his father, who was a powerful chief, had died and bequeathed to him 28 kilogrammes of gold, which had been kept in a security warehouse in Ghana.

He said he was in Ghana to claim the gold and told Meulders that if he helped him retrieve the gold from the security vault by funding the documentation for the release of the gold, he would give him six kilogrammes.

Supt Tiwaa said the following morning Meulders was driven to a purported security warehouse in Accra where he was taken to an office to meet the security officer in charge, who opened a box containing gold dust, and he was made to pay 3, 200 euros for Customs clearing certificates and other documents.

On their return to the hotel, Supt Tiwaa added, two young men from the security company brought in a young Nigerian lady, Ruky Nelson, to keep Meulders company while he waited for the release of the gold from the security vault.

She said Meulders was again picked the next day by two men who introduced him to a lawyer at an office on the Spintex Road, who told him that since the gold had been kept for two years, he had to pay 4,000 euros, which he paid and was issued with a receipt.

While at the hotel the suspects showed him another box of gold dust, claiming that they could help him take it to Belgium without any hindrance.

Following a tip-off, the police went to the hotel while they were negotiating for the second gold and arrested all the suspects.

Supt Tiwaa said investigations revealed that ex-Constable Dzamesi was dismissed from the service in 2005 for fraud and the Accra Circuit Court had also issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

The two vehicles they used for their operations, the Mercedes Benz car and a BMW saloon car, have .been impounded.


Source: Daily Graphic