83 suspected criminals arrested - in ‘operation drag-net’

Page 23: Daily Graphic, May 25, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE police operational team put in place by the Inspector-General of Police last week has rounded up 83 suspected criminals from their hideouts in Accra.
In the operation, which took place yesterday morning, two trunk loads of fake dollars and pounds sterling, a television set, sound systems, two military uniforms and leaves suspected to be Indian hemp were retrieved from the suspects.
The exercise, which was conducted by more than 300 personnel from the Police Headquarters and the Accra Regional Police Command, took place at Tesano, Abeka La Paz, Fadama, Achimota and Weija.
The Director-General of Police Operations, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) John Kudalor, told the Daily Graphic that after the debriefing by the IGP, Mr Paul Quaye, last Thursday, he and his team decided to hit the ground running, especially when the weekend was going to be a long one.
He said the team had resolved to be proactive, instead of reactive, to ensure that residents of Accra went about their duties and slept in peace.
He said the exercise, which had been dubbed, “Operation Drag-net”, would now be intelligence-led to ensure that criminals were continuously flushed out before they hit at innocent and decent citizens.
DCOP Kudalor gave the assurance that the exercise would be sustained, saying that “the criminals may run but they cannot hide from us”.
He appealed to members of the public to assist the police with relevant information on the activities of suspected criminals for the police to get at them.
“We do not want to wait for complaints. The public must assist us with information on any suspicious characters so that we can flush them out,” he stated.