A 38-SEATER Benz bus, with registration number ER 9259 C, loaded with 91 bags of cocoa beans concealed in imported rice bags, was intercepted at the border town of Yegbekope near Ave-Dakpa last week Thursday at about 9.30 p.m., in a special anti-cocoa smuggling operation by the police.
The owner of the vehicle, Emmanuel Sorga, 40, and the driver, Peter Aformana, 41, were arrested on the spot and placed in police custody at Ave-Dakpa.
The Akatsi North District Chief Executive, Mr. James Gunu, who led the operation, told The Spectator that, “we finally caught up with them on the frontier when their bus got stuck in the mud.”
The DCE said a third suspect on the vehicle, fled the scene in the darkness.
“As soon as they spotted the bus, the vigilante groups informed us and we quickly went after them,” said Mr. Gunu.
The suspects, according to the DCE, told the police that they were conveying the cocoa beans from the Eastern Region through the district, to Togo.
The vehicle has been impounded while the cocoa beans have been handed over to officials of the Cocoa Marketing Board.
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