A Ghanaian man wanted by the Orangeville (Ontario, Canada) Police on weapons charges and allegations of possessing stolen property has been arrested at his Massachusetts residence and charged with making false statements on U.S. immigration documents.

Andy Akromah, a.k.a. Anderson Owusu, 38, was arrested in Boston Feb. 26 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is currently being detained in Boston, awaiting transfer to face trial in New York State, where the alleged making of false statements took place in February, 2005.

If convicted, Mr. Akromah faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison.

Mr. Akromah, under the name Anderson Owusu, was arrested in Orangeville in 1998 and charged with 23 counts of possession of stolen property and two counts of firearms offences.

He was released by the courts by way of a bail hearing and has not returned since. The Orangeville Police Service has an outstanding warrant for his arrest should he return to the area. It is not currently seeking his extradition.

According to American authorities, Mr. Akromah submitted a form I-485 application to obtain lawful permanent residency in the United States.

In that questionnaire, he responded in the negative to questions asking whether he had been arrested or charged with breaking a law, and whether he had ever participated in the killing of any person because of race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, or political opinion.

However, investigation established that he had previously submitted an application for refugee status in Canada under the name Anderson Owusu, where he stated that he had been employed by the Ghana Bureau of National Investigation and had been involved in arrests of individuals politically opposed to the Ghanian government, who in some cases had been arrested and killed without benefit of a trial.