On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) made it public that it has confiscated some 95 luxury vehicles alleged to have been stolen from the United States of America and Canada.

It is against this backdrop that the Chamber of Automobile Dealership Ghana (CADEG) has called on EOCO to suspend the seizure of some 95 luxury vehicles.

According to CADEG, EOCO failed to conduct a thorough investigation on the issue before seizing the luxurious vehicles.

CADEG believes that contrary to the narrative that the 95 vehicles were stolen by some Ghanaian importers, the latter are rather victims of a powerful international cartel that take advantage of importers.

“Per the investigations, it means that EOCO should have contacted us to get our version and see that most of those cars that have been claimed to have been stolen are not actually stolen but Ghanaians are rather victims of these international forces. It is a cartel work from Canada that they are using that cartel system to take advantage of the ordinary businessman to take their money from them. So, I believe that that exercise should be suspended,” a press release from CADEG read.

CADEG added that EOCO should have done a comprehensive investigation on the issue before seizing the cars, a report by myjoyonline stated.

The statement read, “There were a lot of people that were consulted, but CADEG, in particular, was not consulted. But as I told you, even if you are not consulted, we have engaged other stakeholders like Interpol, Auto Theft, the Legal Department of CID, the Director General of CID, Customs, Shippers Authority so there’s a communication going on between us and how to sanitize the system.”

CADEG and EOCO are both calling on importers of the impounded vehicles to submit all relevant documents on the cars and work with all relevant authorities to bring a final resolution to the case.

EAN/FNOQ