The National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey has told Citi News preliminary investigations conducted by his outfit indicate that the cargo seized in Turkey suspected to be gold is just rock samples.
The 1.5 tons of suspected gold worth some eighty million dollars was seized aboard a Dubai-bound plane from Ghana in Turkey early this year.
Two persons have since been picked up by the Bureau of National Investigations over the matter after government begun investigation into the issue.
Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey however says the minerals are just worthless rock samples.
“Our investigations are not yet complete but the point is there are all indications that that is not gold… those who are supposed to have received the goods… we are still trying to make contact with them and get them to talk to us because they have the goods”, the National Security Coordinator stated. He added that “there are various companies who buy gold and there are processes by which they can export this gold which involves the Bank of Ghana and the rest of them but this one did not go along that line”.
According to Col. Gbevlo-Lartey, “The documentation that they used to export whatever they exported which they had from the Geological Survey guys indicates that these are rock samples which are for laboratory works and they are of no commercial value”.
Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey dismissed claims the transportation of the fake gold is an indictment on the nation’s security apparatus saying “if people are exporting rock samples from Ghana and they have the necessary documentation to export rock sample, what indictment would that put on national security?”
The National Security Coordinator also underscored the need for Ghana to properly patrol its boarders to halt the continuous smuggling of subsidized fuel into neighboring countries.
