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The arrests were made following reports that about 1,000 foreign nationals had connived with cocoa farmers and landowners in the area to mine illegally.
“So far we’ve been able to arrest 31 of them. The operation is still ongoing and so far the areas that we’ve conducted such operations are Abekoase, Abomosu, Bomso, and Akrade. These were conducted just last week,” the head of the Operation Vanguard team in the area, Major John Majeed Baluo said.
He added: “There are some observations that we’ve made over the period. The first one is the loyalty of the locals towards these illegal miners. It will surprise you to know that before we even move and get to the site, our own people will call and tell them that the Vanguard personnel are on their way coming,” he said.
In a related development, the Municipal Chief Executive Officer of Kwahu West, Yaw Owusu Addo, has called for help to clamp down on illegal mining in the area.
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He told Accra-based Citi FM that the:“We need help. Ours is happening after the major onslaught on galamsey. So they’ve all now come here. You can find more than a thousand foreigners who have come here to besiege our town. There’s little we can do.
"They have metal detectors which make their work easier and once they detect it, there are troops to dig straight away and they make their gold and go away,” he lamented.