“Gangway,” a well-known illegal mining and crime-ridden enclave in Aboso in the Prestea-Huni Valley District, has been the target of a significant crackdown by the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAiMOS).
A heavily armed NAiMOS Task Force invaded the region early on Monday, October 5, 2025, demolishing temporary shanties that had long been used as hideouts by drug dealers, gamblers, and illegal miners.
As dozens of wooden buildings and mining machinery were set on fire in a quick, well-coordinated attack, thick smoke plumes soared above the village.
The neighborhood was rocked by the swoop, and hundreds of locals who were suspected of galamsey and other illegal acts readily turned themselves in to the Task Force.
Additionally, the operation discovered and confiscated multiple packages of hard drugs, including eleven wraps of Indian hemp, indicating the close connection between illicit mining and drugs in the local underground economy.
The most recent raid comes after NAiMOS agents told miners and criminal groups to leave the Gangway during a previous operation in June 2025.
Before the Task Force’s forceful action this week, the illicit operations had persisted despite repeated requests from traditional authority, such as the Chiefs of Aboso.
A generator, three Chanfangs, and fifteen water-pumping machinery were confiscated or destroyed as NAiMOS personnel expanded their sweep to the Dadwen-Dompim section in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality.
As part of the government’s stepped-up campaign against Galamsey, other illicit mining facilities in the region were also burned.
NAiMOS has once again demonstrated its unwavering will to destroy illicit mining networks, recover degraded lands, and reestablish law and order throughout the Western Region with this audacious strike.
Source: newsthemegh.com