TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A fake US embassy that operated for "about a decade" in Ghana's capital of Accra, issuing counterfeit and fraudulently obtained visas, has been shut down, according to the US State Department as reported by The Associated Press.
The scam was organized by "Ghanaian and Turkish organized crime rings" and a Ghanaian attorney, a statement said. Several suspects have been arrested while others are still being hunted.
Raids into the fake embassy resulted in the confiscation of 150 passports from 10 countries and visas from the US, India, South Africa and the European Schengen zone.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that no one was able to enter the United States illegally using a counterfeit visa obtained at the fake embassy.
"This was a criminal, fraud operation masquerading as a fake US embassy," Toner said as quoted by the Associated Press.
It was unclear how many people had fallen victim to the fake embassy operation, which charged $6,000 for its services.
US State Department added that perpetrators running the operation somehow able to bribe corrupt officials ignore the illicit practice. Ghanaian officials said on Monday, December 5, 2016, that they were still collecting information and has not prepared any comment to respond to the discovery.
"This is a shocker," said one Ghanaian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists about the case.
AP