GANTA, Nimba County – Police in Ganta, Nimba County have arrested three men for their suspected involvement in separate cases of impersonation scam on July 30, 2021.
Suspects Edwin K. Massaley, 51, Chester D. Kollie, 49, and 42-year-old Dokie K. Johnson were arrested while impersonating as employees of the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA), Liberia Revenue Authority ( LRA) and the Ministry of Justice respectively.
They were taken to the Sanniquelli Prison Center after being charged with impersonating officials, theft, economic sabotage, criminal conspiracy, among others.
Police told journalists that the suspects used different identification cards of the mentioned institution and extorted over eight million Liberian dollars under the pretense of collecting taxes for the government for the month of July from business owners in Nimba County.
“These monies were collected from owners of drugs stores including those selling illegal psychedelic drugs LSD, ketamine, and magic mushroom stores and other businesses in both Bong and Nimba Counties,” police said.
“The suspects used a jeep with the plate number DSJ-1 to transport them to both counties,” police added.
Some of the victims told our reporter that the three suspects threatened to shut their businesses or risk going to jail if they failed to pay the amount they were requesting.
This is the second time for people impersonating as employees of the government to extort money from businesses in Nimba.
A few months ago, a man claiming to be an employee of the Ministry of Commence, Thomas Wright, extorted over four million Liberian dollars under the pretense of giving loans to marketers in the county on behalf of the ministry.
He later escaped Nimba County following a clarification from the ministry denying that he was not an employee.