four car-snatching gang arrested

Story: Mary Mensah    
FOUR members of a car-snatching gang operating in the country have been busted by the Accra Regional Police Command in Accra and Aflao.
The gang, which mainly snatches Toyota vehicles, as alleged to have so far snatched five Toyota vehicles but a Toyota Hilux pick-up has been retrieved from Togo, while a Toyota Prado has also been retrieved from Asofan, an Accra suburb.
The suspects are Emmanuel Adu Gyamfi Boakye, alias Medical, 28; Emmanuel Osei, 29; Isaac Anim, alias Ike, 30, and Susuawu Pavis, 33.
Three accomplices of theirs - Yaw Sarpong, 29; Nana Osei, alias Acura, and Eric Adjei - are, however, on the run and an intensive search has been mounted for their arrest.
Briefing the press in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Mr Christian Tetteh Yohonu, said the group had been operating in most of the district capitals in the country and had so far snatched five vehicles: two Toyota Hilux, one Prado, one Highlander and one Corolla.
He said about 12 midnight on September 23, 2012, a couple who were returning home in their Toyota Hilux vehicle were attacked at the entrance of their house at Dome CFC by three armed men, with a fourth one waiting in a car.
He said the robbers managed to dispossess the couple of their vehicle, mobile phones and an amount of money.
DCOP Yohonu said the couple quickly reported the incident to the Mile 7 Police Station in Achimota, after which two policemen, assisted by the patrol team, managed to arrest suspects Osei and Adu Gyamfi at the Neoplan Station at Circle when they were about to board a bus for Kumasi about 1:30 a.m.
He said the two suspects, upon interrogation, admitted robbing the victims and led the police to Sarpong’s house at Asofan but they did not meet him.
The two suspects again took the police to Anim’s house at Alhaji where he was arrested.
The Deputy Commander said further investigations by the police revealed that Anim was the one who received the Toyota Hilux and quickly drove it to Aflao and gave it to suspect Pavis, who in turn took the vehicle to Togo for sale.
He indicated that based on that information, the Accra Regional Command quickly dispatched a team of policemen, together with Anim, to Aflao, where Pavis was arrested at Denu. Upon interrogation, he admitted receiving the stolen vehicle, saying he had taken it to a village called Adidogome in Togo.
DCOP Yohonu said a collaboration between the Aflao and Togo police led to the retrieval of the Toyota Hilux from Togo.
Further interrogation of all the suspects led to their admitting that they had snatched five other Toyota vehicles.
He said following that revelation, the police conducted a search in Anim’s house, where two large boxes of eye and ear drugs belonging to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital and one driving licence and a passport belonging to the driver of the hospital’s vehicle which was snatched from him at Pokuase, near Accra, were found.
DCOP Yohonu said the same suspects had, on September 3, 2012, snatched one Toyota Prado at Kwabenya but incidentally the vehicle developed a fault and they abandoned it at Asofan and bolted.