The Enchi District Magistrate Court has remanded thirteen suspected illegal miners into police custody for operating in the Boi Tano forest reserve in the Western North Region.

The suspects between the ages of 17 and 29 years are expected to be in police custody for seven days.

The presiding judge, Lawrence Buanor-Buer, however, told the police that his court was not equipped to deal with these matters and that they should send them to a higher court that handles such cases.

Joe Appiah Frimpong, the District Manager for Enchi Forest District, earlier told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the Enchi Forest District had eight forest reserves, and it included the Jema Asemkrom, and Boi Tano forest reserves, located in the Elubo area near Samreboi.

He said they had intel that some miners had set up camp in the forest reserve and were conducting their illicit activities there.

On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, between 1:00 am and 6:30 am, Mr Frimpong said, four teams coordinated by the Western North Regional Forest Services Division and the Enchi Forest District conducted an intelligence-led operation to flush out illegal miners at Boi Tano and Jema Asemkrom forest reserves.

As part of the operation, the task force conducted a full-scale raid of the site and arrested the suspects: Philip Kanza, Biney Benedict, Francis Achiah, Joshua Asare, Emmanuel Amankwa, and Martin Kwame.

The others are Latif Amadu, Kwabena Mensah, Albert Mensah, Karim Mahama, Adoko Hayford, Ezekiel Ajuusine and Kwasi Desmond.

He said the team also burnt five water-pumping machines, four makeshift structures, and seized two water-pumping machines, ten mobile phones, and four shovels.

The District Manager stressed that “It took us four and a half hours to walk from the boundary to where they had perched their camps.

According to Mr Frimpong, all the suspects were handed over to the Enchi Police Command for further investigations and prosecution.