Three Ghanaians have been arrested in connection with £5 million romance scam. The sum was stolen from 16 Britons.
Opoku Agyeman was arrested in UK, while Moro Musah and Sabina Adzre were arrested in Accra by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).
The special operation code-named ‘Operation Grateful’ was done between four Ghanaian security agencies; EOCO, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) and the Ghana Police Service as well as the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
The joint investigation was into romance scam, its resultant trade-based money laundering (TBML) and exploitation of victims’ details both in and outside Ghana.
A statement by EOCO Tuesday said at least 16 people have been uncovered to have fallen victim to the fraud and the sum of £5 million have been stolen from the victims in the UK.
UK’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) revealed more than 3,889 Brits were duped in 2016. The sum of £39 million was reportedly stolen from them.
Their mode of operation varies depending on the emotional state of the victims.
EOCO said second-hand clothing/textile business was applied to launder the proceeds of the identified romance fraud
