Police bust suspected immigration ring…

Late this afternoon, police officials were still locked in meetings with prosecutors following the arrest of three Ghanaian men and a Belizean woman in connection to what appears to be a major immigration scam. Details are still sketchy but we understand tonight that after months of surveillance today Belize City police and immigration officers conducted a raid at a house on Smith Street. Inside the home cops found a number of passports from several different countries, various immigration documents and computer equipment. A similar discovery was also made at another house at the corner of Cemetery Road and Partridge Street. As a result of the operation, fifty-three year old car dealer Sampson Boateng, his common-law wife Irma Valencia, his brother twenty-eight year old Frank Boateng and twenty-six year old mechanic Gwame Boakye were immediately detained. According to investigators, they suspect Boateng and his associates were being mailed passports from countries like the People’s Republic of Ethiopia, South Africa, Ghana, the Dominican Republic, the Kingdom of Swaziland and Nigeria. Once in Belize, the passports were processed with fraudulent permanent residency stamps, visitor entry stamps and/or immigration extensions and returned to the sender. Cops say later on, the holder was then free to apply for either nationality or permanent residency cards by claiming that they had already spent the necessary time in the country. All four people remain in police custody at the Queen Street Police Station tonight and are being represented by attorney Sharon Pitts Robateau. Cops say a part of their investigation will also determine whether the Boateng brothers and Boakye were legally in Belize.