The suspects
The police have denied reports that they have arrested four Lebanese for allegedly attempting to smuggle thousands of dollars back to their country without paying taxes.
Although the police confirmed that they arrested a Lebanese at Asokwa in the Ashanti Region, the security agents say the arrest has nothing to do with money laundering or smuggling of money out of the country.
According to police sources in Kumasi, there are no Lebanese in their custody or any police facility in the country for allegedly attempting to smuggle bundles of dollars in a car tyre out of the country.
News broke last Monday about four Lebanese, who were arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle thousands of US dollars back to their homeland without paying any tax on them.
The four were said to have been arrested upon a tip-off from police informants at Asokwa in the Ashanti Region when they tried to smuggle bundles of dollars in a car tyre.
The reports said that the four suspects, whose names were not given by the police, could be seen in a video which has gone viral on social media, stashing the cash in vehicle tyres with the rim still in place ostensibly to smuggle the money and avoid paying any tax to Ghanaian authorities.
But a follow-up on the story indicated that no such arrest was made by the police and the video, which went viral, was taken out of context.
However, police sources in Kumasi and Accra, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that they arrested a Ghanaian of Lebanese descent who had stolen $144,000.00 from a Lebanese movie company, Jamila Hollywood Africa Limited and was running away from the company and its managers with his booty.
The source said the suspect was picked up by the police at Asokwa upon a tip-off and the management of the movie company was immediately informed about the arrest.
According to the source, the $144,000 has since been retrieved from the miscreants and handed over to the company.
The source said management of the company decided not to press further charges against the offender, and the matter has since been settled amicably among the parties.
The police declined to give out his name because the matter had been already settled.
Touching on the video of four individuals believed to be Lebanese, a source revealed that the incident has nothing to do with money laundering but rather a scene from an ongoing movie, which was blown out of proportion.
A source at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service also confirmed this when contacted by DAILY GUIDE.
The source said the police in Accra and Kumasi have not arrested any Lebanese for such offence.
The paper gathered that there is an extended version of the video which is also part of the movie.
By Gibril Abdul Razak