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Thirty-three people, including eight women, who the police suspect to be engaged in various criminal activities, were yesterday arrested in a swoop at Madina. The suspects, aged between 15 and 50, included gamblers, car snatchers, drug peddlers, phone snatchers and prostitutes. They were apprehended between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. at the Madina Market, Jamaica and Nkuleni, areas that the police described as hideouts for criminals. Weeding out criminals The exercise, according to the Madina Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police Natoamah Yakubu Aggrey, was a special operation carried out in accordance with plans by the police administration to weed out criminals. He alleged that three of the suspects were arrested when they attempted to snatch a taxi from its driver, while some of the women were engaging in commercial sex activities, in breach of the country�s laws. He also said during the operation, the police found some of the suspects engaged in gambling and others operating open-air bars after midnight. �Under the laws of Ghana, it is an offence to operate a drinking bar after 10 p.m.. They sell the hard liquor to the criminals and when they take it they become high and then undertake their criminal activities,� Chief Supt Aggrey said. Items retrieved Items retrieved during the operation included a locally manufactured gambling machine, mobile phones, dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, alcohol, non-alcoholic drinks and outdoor sound systems. �For some time now, we have been recording crime cases and we have been disturbed so we decided to track down the criminals hence the swoop,� Mr Aggrey added. He also said the suspects would be screened and put before court by Friday.