Three persons are in the grips of the Accra Regional Police Command for being in possession of 135 copies of fake Ghanaian passports and other fake passports of a number of other countries.
In addition, 44 fake visas belonging to United State of America, United Kingdom, South Africa, Schengen China and Iran were also retrieved from the suspected visa fraudsters.
The suspects are Kyere Boakye, a.k.a. Ahmed Musah, 53; Benjamin Ofosu Barimah, a.k.a. Seth Obeng, 32; and Jeffrey Kofi Opare, also known as Ayerno Bezale Tayo, 32.
Briefing the press about the arrest, the Accra Regional Police Commander, ACP Timothy Yosa Bonga, stated that on June 24 his command had a tip off that a syndicate based in Adabraka was into issuing fake visas and other forged documents to unsuspecting prospective travellers.
Per his claim, after receiving the information, police personnel were swiftly dispatched to Adabraka to ascertain the authenticity of the information.
He detailed that a search conducted on the premises led to the retrieval of the above items and others, such as 22 fake rubber stamps of the Director of Immigration’s resident permit, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, Barclays Bank of Ghana-Krofrom branch, National Investment Bank, fake rubber stamps of Akuafo Chambers, Kwadaso Agric College, Dormaa Secondary School and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
A further search conducted also led to the retrieval of several forged stamps belonging to medical surgeons.
Other items found were documents suspected to have been forged and letterheads of government institutions and organisations such as fake certificates of West Africa Examination Council and Ecobank.
Also, two embossment machines and a seal of George Kwasi Barimah Accra, Republic of Ghana Notary, two laptops and seven mobile phones were recovered.
According to him, preliminary investigations revealed that these suspects bear different names on their individual Ghanaian temporal driving licenses and passports.
The police also learnt that the syndicate is able to secure any document desired by the client, including fake bank statements to support travelling documents for visas in respective embassies.
ACP Bonga, however, disclosed that customers who use the services of these visa fraudsters usually have a safe passage from the country but are arrested in their destination countries.
He seized the opportunity to advise the general public to secure visas from the required embassy and not through middlemen.
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