CEPS Intercepts Uncustomed Wax Prints

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The Koforidua office of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has seized 1,151 pieces of African wax prints valued at GH¢26,824.87 at Akuse in the Eastern Region.

The items, which were being smuggled from Mepe in the Volta Region through the Volta River, could have fetched a GH¢10,600 duty, representing 40 per cent of the value of the smuggled goods.

A Benz bus with registration number ER 2610 C that was carrying the wax prints was also impounded.

The vehicle was being occupied by three persons who are currently assisting in investigations. They are Samuel Sigbe, 26, driver; Junior Amenyedzi, 26, a driver's mate, and George Atsu, a 30-year-old loader.

Briefing the Daily Graphic in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Sector Commander of CEPS, Mr James Teibu, said his outfit received an intelligence report at about 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 18, this year, that a Benz bus with smuggled wax prints was moving from Aflao through unapproved routes to Accra.

He said a team of personnel from his outfit and police was immediately dispatched to the area to mount surveillance but no vehicle was seen.

However, he said, at exactly 2.30 a.m. the next day, the Benz bus was spotted and later taken to the Regional Headquarters of CEPS for inspection.

The commander said during interrogation, the occupants of the bus said they were only paid GH¢200 by the owners of the goods, whom they failed to name, to cart them from Mepe to Akuse.

He said several intelligence reports received from informants revealed that most of the smuggled goods from Togo entered the country through the estuary of the Volta at Ada.

Such items were then carted by boats that plied the Volta River and deposited on some of the islands on the river upstream, only to be transported to other destinations, mainly Accra and Kumasi, through unapproved routes.

Story by Nana Konadu Agyeman.