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28.09.2005 Crime & Punishment

CEPS intercepts smuggled wax prints

28.09.2005 LISTEN
By GNA

Ho, Sept 28, GNA-Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) personnel at the Abutia-Check point on Wednesday intercepted a tipper truck with 27 bundles of English wax prints embedded in sand. CEPS personnel used spades and other tools to reach the bundles after the Man Diesel truck with registration Number GR 9633 L was escorted to Ho to dislodge the sand and the wares in front of the CEPS Volta Regional Office, drawing a large crowd to the scene. Mr Kwesi Fredua-Agyeman Boakye, Assistant Commissioner in-Charge of the Ho Collection told Journalists that CEPS had been monitoring the movement of tipper trucks loaded with sand and driving towards Accra recently.

He said following a tip-off, personnel kept surveillance on the truck and when rods driven through the sand during examination at Abutia checkpoint were impeded, the truck was seized and escorted to Ho. Mr Boakye said CEPS personnel would confiscate the wax prints and take other punitive actions as recommended by the law against the driver, his mate and the owners of the wax prints, if they showed up. He urged the public to help CEPS check smuggling into to the country by giving information of the movement of these nation wreckers. Mr Boakye advised importers to be wary of agents who collect monies from them to bribe CEPS personnel to enable their contraband good reach their destinations without hitch.

The Driver who gave his name as George Kofi said the wax prints, which were loaded in Ho belonged to one he knew only as 'Osofo.' CEPS personnel in the Ho Collection have within the last two weeks intercepted several pieces of wax prints being smuggled into the country.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fredua- Agyeman Boakye, Assistant Commissioner in-charge of the Ho Collection of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) said a man named as Osofo Boachie, a Pastor of the Church of Pentecost in Ho has been identified as the owner of the 27 bales of smuggled wax prints intercepted by the CEPS at the Abutia Checkpoint on Wednesday.

He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in a telephone briefing that, the 27 bales contained 921 full pieces of foreign wax prints and another 90 pieces of Georget prints.

At Asikuma Checkpoint last Thursday, September 22, CEPS, personnel intercepted a Benz Bus whose speaker boxes, roofs and sides were stuffed with 61 full pieces of wax prints.

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