Ten persons including two policemen have been arrested by the Rapid Response Unit of the Forestry Commission in the Juaboso District of the Western North Region.
They include four Chinese nationals identified as Men Shi Yu, 30, Wen Yong Cheng, 30, Wen Fu Lin, 58 and Lee Pin, 60, their four Ghanaian collaborators, Edward Owusu, 25, Kwesi Frank, 42, Abudu Dramani, 41 and Joe Naburi, 27.
Two police officers, Detective Sergeant, Yahaya Andrews and Lance Corporal Azantillow believed to be protecting them were also arrested at the mining site inside the forest reserve.
During interrogation, Detective Sergeant Yahaya Andrews told the team that Chief Inspector Adusei Negga ordered them to patrol the Kokosua Forest Reserve close to Asempaneye where they are stationed.
The joint operation conducted on Tuesday, December 12 by the Rapid Response Unit and the District Forest Management of Juaboso also saw the burning of 10 excavators used by the miners.
The Krokosua Forest Reserve has come under siege recently by illegal miners who have already destroyed large parts of it.
The arrest comes on the back of a recent onslaught by the Forestry Commission to flush out pervasive mining in forest reserves across the country.
On Wednesday, 29th November, 2023 the Rapid Response Unit of the Forestry Commission conducted a similar operation in the Anwiaso East Forest Reserve, at Manse, near Diaso in the Bibiani Forest District in the Western North Region.
It was targeted at flushing out illegal miners who had entered the reserve with heavy machinery and were destroying the forest cover and polluting water bodies.
Ten illegal miners were arrested in that operation.
The team destroyed two excavators and two heavy-duty electrical plants found at the illegal mining site.
The suspects were handed over to the Dunkwa Police.
The Coordinator of the Rapid Response Unit at the Forestry Commission Headquarters, Samuel Darko-Akonor has issued a warning to individuals mining in forest reserves to halt such criminal activities.
“The unit is ever prepared to carry the fight to them to save our forest and our water bodies,” he said.
The Executive Director of the Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission told Luv FM’s Erastus Asare Donkor; “The war on illegal mining within forest reserves continues unabated. We need the support of all, including our military, police, judiciary, media and civil society to effectively deal with this existential threat. This war must be won.”
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