The pistols that were intercepted by the police
• More than 100 pieces of pistols have been intercepted by Istanbul police
• This comes after the police acted on a tip-off
• The suspect has been arrested for attempting to smuggle pistols into Ghana
Istanbul police have arrested a 37-year-old Ghanaian national for attempting to smuggle 17 pistols into Ghana.
According to the police, the pistols were confiscated after they acted on a tip-off on June 17 that the suspect planned of sending the items to Ghana through a parcel delivery service in Istanbul’s Fatih suburb.
The police after the operation stormed the suspect’s house in the suburb of Şişli and arrested him, Daily Graphic has reported.
Istanbul authorities said the suspect was already indicted in Ghana for arms smuggling.
This report, according to Daily graphic was contained in a statement by the Istanbul police, published by Turkish pro-government, Daily Sabah.
It would be recalled that on June 19, 2021, GhanaWeb reported that a Ghanaian living in Turkey revealed a plot by some persons in Ghana to ship firearms illegally into the country.
The guns which are more than 100 pieces in three different sets of parcels are wrapped in a silver lining depicting a toy gun to evade custom search.
In the video sighted by Ghanaweb, a man called Gabon, who is an agent who deals in import and export, stated that he was convinced to unravel the items in some of the bags his clients sent to him to be shipped to Ghana following his previous encounter.
According to him, his previous shipment to Ghana landed him in trouble which is still pending after it was found that some of his shipment contained firearms as well.
The freight forwarder who has been in the business for 4-years said:
“I’m into cable business and I ship stuff as an agency. I remember last year I sent 2 containers and I know guns are sold in stores but sometimes I receive items which contain guns although most of the things I ship are phones and others.
“I was here when I received a call that one of my shipment contained guns and I denied knowledge of it because there are names written on the packages,” he added.
Narrating how he discovered that his latest shipment contained several firearms, Gabon said, “I was here three days ago when I received a package from a man I will keep anonymous. His packages have been wrapped neatly in a bag. But after he left I decided to probe what’s in his bag because I don’t normally do that for his packages. He told me he would return soon but he never came so I decided to open it only to find these guns.”
According to him, this is not the first time such a thing has occurred to freight forwarders in Turkey, he revealed, “I have a friend here he also discovered a similar stuff in a sound system.”
He pleaded with the Ghana Embassy in Turkey to deal with the culprits.
There has been a rise in criminal activities in the country with robbers wielding pistols which the police are still investigating how the robbers managed to get hold of.