The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) task force in the Ahanta West Municipality has impounded two excavators and arrested a suspected galamsey kingpin along with four accomplices, after rejecting an attempted bribe at Cape Three Points.
The special operation, carried out on Saturday, January 31, 2026, focused on illegal mining sites within the Cape Three Points Forest Reserve, where unlawful activities have severely degraded the forest cover.
At approximately 8:40 a.m., the task force stormed the affected locations, dismantling makeshift shelters and destroying mining equipment discovered on site.
During the raid, the team retrieved two excavators that had been deliberately disabled by illegal miners, who removed and hid their monitors to prevent seizure. NAIMOS operatives managed to recover the machines and arranged for their transfer to the Secretariat’s equipment holding facility in Takoradi.
While the excavators were being moved from the forest to the main road, a man identified as Bright Mensah, suspected to be a galamsey kingpin, approached a member of the task force in an attempt to reclaim the equipment.
The suspect, claiming ownership of the excavators, arrived in a white pickup truck with registration number GT 8299-24 and allegedly offered a bribe of GH₵20,000 to one of the operatives.
Mensah and four other miners, later traced to his illegal mining site, were subsequently apprehended by the task force and handed over to the Abura Police Station in the Agona Nkwanta District for further investigation. His pickup vehicle was also confiscated.
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