A group of people, including cocoa purchasing officers who attempted to steal 550 bags of cocoa valued at 300 million cedis from a Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) has been arrested. The group operates by stealing cocoa beans ready for export, re-bag them and sell them to the CMC, thereby forcing the company to pay double for the same number of bags. Those arrested are Kofi Amponsah, 48, the District Cocoa Purchasing Officer of the Sikaba Cocoa Buying Company at Apedwa, Samson Aboagye, 37, a Cocoa Purchasing Clerk at Nsawam, both in the Eastern region and Jacob Kwabena Kwafo, 31 a security officer of the CMC. According to the Deputy Tema Regional Crime Officer, Mr Appiah Kubi, on Monday December 8, 2006, officials of CMC went to the police station and reported that some sacks of cocoa were missing from the rented shed near the Volta Aluminum Company. He said the security man on duty at the time and two others who kept the key to the shed were picked up for questioning after which the security man confessed to conspiring with some of those who offloaded the cocoa to steal the beans. The security man said they packed the cocoa onto an articulated truck with registration number AS 1798V, bound for Apedwa but the vehicle broke down on the way. The police on their way to Apedwa to trace the vehicle, found it at Mankrong near Suhum having broken down but without the cocoa. Mr Kubi said four mechanics who were found working on the vehicle were arrested but the driver managed to escape. He said upon interrogation, the mechanics confessed that the cocoa had been offloaded onto a Kia pick up and sent to Apedwa where it was sold to a cocoa purchasing officer. He said Samson was said to have accompanied the cocoa and he was arrested at Apedwa. Samson told the police that he sold the cocoa to Amponsah, a cocoa purchasing officer and led the police to the Sikaba shed where Amponsah was caught red handed changing the sacks of cocoa. The Deputy Crime Officer said according to Amponsah, two gentlemen sold the cocoa to him and he paid them 6 million with the promise that they would come for the remaining later. Investigations are continuing into the operations of the suspects and their group. Source: Daily Graphic