Operation Vanguard arrests 50 suspected illegal miners

Fifty suspected illegal miners have been arrested in a swoop carried out by Operation Vanguard in the Western and Eastern regions.

Sixteen of the suspects are Chinese nationals operating in Enchi Kwahu in the in the western region.

The rest were operating in the East Akim municipality of the Eastern region.

Speaking on Accra based Starr FM, the Public Relation Officer of the Operation Vanguard, Captain Andy Sowatey said nine of the suspects were Ghanaians while the others were Chinese, Guinean and Burkinabe nationals.

Read also:Operation Vanguard arrests 15 suspected Chinese illegal miners
 
“We arrested 16 Chinese illegal miners… together with five excavators.  Also some 34 suspected illegal miners were arrested in the East Akim Municipality in the Eastern region on Friday. The suspects, who were picked up in the Eastern region, none of them were locals. We have 22 Guinean and three Burkinabe nationals”. He said.

He said locals who were handed over to the police at Kibi for prosecution while the foreigners were handed over to the inter-ministerial committee on illegal mining together with five excavators.