The five, who were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, have been interdicted and are helping the police in their investigations.

The Director of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, Superintendent Cephas Arthur, said after the service enquiry by the Police Administration, the dockets on the five would be forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Department for advice.

The arrest of Mr Basintale and his accomplices followed intensive investigations by the CID from 2016.

Suspects

 The CID, which effected the arrest, has given the names of the four other policemen as RSM John Savour, General Corporal Baleto Buafour, General Corporal Ignatius Asamoah Mensah and Detective Corporal Cyrus Conduah.

The civilian suspects are Anthony Yaw Osei, alias Wofa; Frederick Kofi Appiah, alias Nana Agyei; William Hansua and George Yeboah.

Two others — a chief and a queenmother from Tarkwa in the Western Region — are currently at large.

The group, believed to be led by DSP Basintale, is alleged to have defrauded Green Global Resources Company Limited of GH¢1.3 million under the pretext of selling 13 gold bars to the company.

DSP Arthur said investigations revealed that DSP Basintale had been involved in many gold deals in which his gang offered the gold bars to prospective buyers, but as soon as payment was made the police went in to seize the gold bars and arrest both the buyers and the sellers.

Gold deals

He said the complainant in the gold deal that exposed DSP Basintale was Green Global Resources, a licensed dealer in gold and other minerals which, in November last year, contacted  Adedayo Jalil Adedotum to assist the company to purchase gold bars for export.

After he had agreed to help, Adedayo arranged a meeting among the company, its bankers, Courage Gesepe, a gold dealer, and another person whose name was given only as Frank, also a gold dealer.

During the meeting, Gesepe offered 20 kilogrammes of  gold for sale at $31,000 per kilogramme, to which the company agreed, but requested that it would have to test the gold.

At a later meeting, Gesepe presented 13 gold bars to be tested. Eleven of the bars turned out to be pure 22 carat gold, while the remaining two were 20 carat and the company paid GH¢1.3 million for the 11 bars which met its required purity.

Suddenly, four policemen appeared at the hotel, in the company of Yeboah, and arrested the group, claiming they were selling stolen gold.

Case referred

Dissatisfied with the conduct of the East Legon Police, Green Global Resources reported the matter to the CID, which began investigations into the case.

When DSP Basintale was asked to produce the 13 gold bars at the CID Headquarters, they turned out to be fake gold bars.