The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor says syndicates involved in the smuggling of undocumented gold through the country’s borders must be dealt with.

According to him, these officials should face the full rigours of the law for engaging in these illegalities.

His comments follow a JoyNews exposé which revealed how some security operatives and some politically connected individuals are complicit in a gold smuggling syndicate that illegally exports gold through the country’s air and sea ports.

In the hotline documentary, dubbed ‘Busted: The Gold Smugglers’, JoyNews' investigative team revealed how gold is tucked under traditional woven slippers and smuggled out of the country.

Speaking to Adom News at the launch of Green Ghana Day 2021 and the commemoration of International Day on Forest 2021, Mr. Jinapor described the alleged smuggling as unacceptable and directed the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service to probe into the saga to ensure that all culprits are brought to book.

"We are going to get the Criminal Investigation Department to conduct an investigation into this matter. The smuggling of gold is an illegality and a criminal act. So if we have a syndicate smuggling gold, it is purely a criminal act and the CID department must find a way of investigating this report.

"Also, the Precious Minerals Marketing Company and the Minerals Commission have tasked them to come up with reforms and strategies to ensure that we have a regime in Ghana that will make it difficult or even impossible to smuggle our gold out of our country.

"But clearly we will investigate this allegation and strengthen the institutional framework of the Minerals Commission and the PMMC to make sure that we put the mechanism in place to forestall the smuggling of gold out of our country," he emphasized.

The MP for Damongo Constituency also added that he has directed officials of the Forestry Commission to halt granting permits to miners within forest reserves.

He also asked the Forestry Commission to clamp down on people who engage in illegal mining in the forest reserves.