The police at the weekend pushed the fight against violent crime closer to the roots when they raided a gun manufacturing base at Breman Anhwiam in the Central Region and seized 30 assorted weapons in the process. Two blacksmiths and a woman alleged to be involved in the manufacture of the weapons and allegedly selling them to armed robbers were also arrested by the Blue Eagle Unit of the Ghana Police Service, which conducted the raid. The three are Raphael Amenyo, 40, Raphael Ntsire, 42, and Araba Mensimah, 28, and wife of Ntsireh. When their rooms were searched, 22 single-barrelled and three double-barrelled guns, as well as five pistols, including two revolvers, were found. Also seized were the machines used for the manufacture of the guns. Briefing the media after the operation, the Director of Operations at the Police Headquarters, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACOP) Boi-Bi-Boi, said the activities of blacksmiths had contributed greatly to the activities of armed robbers and other criminals in the country. He said the police had information about the illicit activities of the two blacksmiths, who had been manufacturing the guns in the village and had been supplying them to armed robbers. He said a team of police personnel were quickly dispatched from Accra to the area and the suspects were arrested in the act of producing more guns. ACOP Boi-Bi-Boi said the woman among them was arrested because some of the guns were found hidden under her bed. The Operations Director said upon her arrest, she told the police that her husband worked with the national health insurance scheme but had for some years now not received any salary so he decided to manufacture the guns to earn a living. Mr Boi-Bi-Boi commended members of the public for providing the vital information which led to the arrest of the suspects and said the police could not fight crime without the support of the general public. He disclosed that last week, four locally manufactured guns were seized at Have in the Volta Region and warned the armed robbers that the police were firmly on the ground and would deal drastically with them to ensure that peace-loving Ghanaians had the peaceful environment to go about their daily activities. Source: Daily Graphic