Court: Customs officer and two others remanded over theft of $4.3 million worth of gold in Ghana

Three individuals, including a customs officer, have been accused of stealing gold worth USD$4,303,234.00 that belonged to GND Global Trading LLC.

The accused, Emmanuel Dwamena, Abdul Karim Lakoh, and Seth Dzamesi, denied conspiring to steal the 75 kilograms of gold bars and have been remanded in custody by an Accra Circuit Court.

They will appear in court again on March 27, 2023. However, their accomplice, George Asamoah, is currently on the run.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Evans Kesse, who is prosecuting the case, the complainants were citizens of the United Arab Emirates and Australia. Lakoh is a Sierra Leonean, while Dzamesi is a Ghanaian businessman residing in Tantra hills, and Dwamena is a customs officer who resides in Kasoa.

The complainants went to Sierra Leone in March 2023 to buy gold, and Lakoh, who was among the people who sold the gold to the complainants, promised to assist them in transporting it from Sierra Leone through Ghana to Dubai.

On March 16, 2023, the complainants and Lakoh arrived at the Kotoka International Airport with 75 kilos of gold bars.

However, Lakoh managed to escape from the arrival hall, and Asamoah, who is still at large, came to pick him up in a black Range Rover vehicle.

They met Dzamesi, who was driving a customs branded Toyota Hilux Pickup, and stole the bag containing the gold bars, which they kept in the pickup.

An immigration officer then smuggled the complainants out of the arrival hall and handed them over to Dwamena at the departure hall.

Dwamena then drove them to a supposed customs bonded warehouse in Accra to meet Dzamesi, who posed as a customs officer.

The gold was sent to Dzamesi’s office, where he forced the complainants out and took the gold. Dwamena then drove the complainants back to the airport and left them there.

Lakoh attempted to escape but was arrested and handed over to the airport police for investigation.

Further investigation revealed that the whole gold scandal started in Sierra Leone and that Dwamena and Asamoah were their Ghanaian accomplices who helped steal the gold from Kotoka International Airport.

The accused persons admitted to hatching the plan from Sierra Leone with the assistance of their Ghanaian accomplices to steal the gold. Efforts are being made to arrest the other accomplices.