Police bust suspected car
stealing syndicate
Kumasi, May 19, Ghanadot/GNA - The
Ashanti Regional Police Command has
arrested a suspected car stealing syndicate believed
to be operating between Kenyasi
and Duase in the Kwabre East District of Ashanti.
The suspects, Kwabena Appiah, Kwame Brobbey and Ben Adazy
Azigi
are reported to have specialised in snatching of vehicles,
especially
taxis.
Briefing newsmen in Kumasi on the modus operandi of the
gang,
Police Superintendent (Supt) John Ernest Owusu, Ashanti
Regional Crime Officer, said
Appiah, the leader of the syndicate, often posed as a
student of the Garden City University College (GCUC)
at Kenyase and hired unsuspecting
taxi drivers to the town.
He said on the way to the College, Appiah, 22, would pull
out a
weapon and order his victims to drive to a nearby bush where
his
accomplices joined him and would help tie up their victims
with a rope
before bolting with the car and other valuables.
Supt. Owusu said on March 26, this year at about 2030 hours,
Appiah hired the services of a driver of a Hyundai taxi cab
with
registration number AS7545 Z from Kejetia to GCUC.
On reaching Kenyasi, he pulled out a gun and ordered the
cabbie
to drive into the bush were he tied him up around a tree and
called up
Brobbey to join him and they drove away.
Supt Owusu said the suspects drove to Aflao in the Volta
Region
where they sold the car to one Azigi at GH¢650.
He said while the suspects got away, the taxi driver freed
himself after untying the rope and lodged a complaint with
the Police.
He said in the middle of April, this year, Appiah and his
gang
played the same trick on another taxi driver whom he hired
from Adum
to Kenyasi.
Supt Owusu indicated that this time around, the taxi driver
freed
himself soon after the gang left and rushed to the Kenyasi
township
where he informed neighbours who later found the taxi
abandoned with the ignition key
taken away together with an amount of GH¢40.
He stated that investigations led to the arrest of Appiah at
Duase and that after a thorough search of his house, the
police
retrieved a dagger, toy pistol and a bunch of car keys.
GNA
