Some consular staff of the real US Embassy in Ghana would be sacked after security officials discovered and shut down a fake Embassy that has been operating for 10 years and issuing genuine US visas in the country at a cost of $6000. 
 
 Genuine visas can only be issued when there is an inside job. 
 
 The fake embassy also reportedly issued visas to other European countries, as well as counterfeit documents. 
 
 It is not clear when the criminals were busted but the information was posted on the Department of State’s website on November 2, 2016, the news however, went viral only after ghanabusinessnews.com broke it Friday evening December 2. 
 
 While US Embassy officials won’t comment because they say investigation of the matter is ongoing, ghanabusinessnews.com can say on authority that some staff of the consular section would be fired. 
 
 A source familiar with Department of State processes told ghanabusinessnews.com that employees found culpable in the crime would simply be recalled and no reasons would be assigned, and Embassy staff wouldn’t even know about it. 
 
 It appears that’s how diplomatic missions handle offences by staff. Ghanabusinessnews.com is familiar with a similar incident at the Embassy of a European country in Ghana. There was a visa scandal at this Embassy in 2012, and the Ambassador was quietly recalled, and no reason was assigned. Some staff didn’t even know why. 
 
 A source who wasn’t authorized to speak to the media told ghanabusinessnews.com that employees at the said Embassy apparently were engaged in illegal issuance of visas, and the travellers were arrested at the country’s entry point. The travellers were caught because that country had joined a new visa system, and had changed its visas. But these travellers had the visa from the old system. 
 
 In an unprecedented move in 2006, Switzerland recalled its entire diplomatic staff including the ambassador from its Karachi mission when it was discovered that there was a massive visa fraud in its Islamabad Embassy, and visas for Pakistanis were halted at that time. 
 
 The fake US Embassy operating somewhere in Accra, was issuing genuine visas, the security team that closed it down said. They also found that a Ghanaian immigration lawyer working with some Turkish and other Ghanaian citizens was involved with the active connivance of Ghana law enforcement officers, who were apparently bribed to look the other way. 
 
 Visa acquisition in Ghana 
 
 Applying for visas in Ghana is a dreadful experience for any prospective traveller. The consular sections of almost all Embassies demand for proofs like birth certificate, bank statements, invitation letters, some with additional photocopies of hosts, and in some instances even their bank statements. 
 
 After providing all these, the Embassies demand that prospective travellers submit their applications in person and in most cases go through an interview, and yet many known qualified prospective travellers with no intention of remaining in these countries are denied visas. 
 
 There was a famous case of a medical professional that was invited to present a paper at a conference in Spain but was denied visa on the flimsy excuse that he didn’t satisfy the conditions for a visa, which in most cases means that the applicant is not likely to return to Ghana. 
 
 This medical expert then responded by writing a copious open letter to the Spanish Embassy in Ghana. 
 
 Connection men 
 
 Due to the frustrating experience in acquiring a visa to travel, especially to Europe and the US, the phenomena of connection men has sprung up. While anyone familiar with visa issuance processes would disbelieve the effectiveness of these connection men to whom prospective travellers pay huge sums of money for visas, these incidents of the fake US Embassy and the example of the European country’s embassy in Ghana emphatically confirm that insiders work with these connection men to issue visas. 
 
 Human trafficking 
 
 This fake US Embassy that operated for 10 years, which category of travellers was it serving? Could they have issued visas to human traffickers? Because $6000 is a colossal amount that very few ordinary travellers can afford. It would therefore, not be out of place to assume that most of the clients of this criminal gang were human traffickers. 
 
 The crime of human trafficking is a lucrative illegal business generating an amount of $150 billion every year for traffickers. 
 
 By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi 
 
 Copyright © 2016 by Creative Imaginations Publicity 
 
 All rights reserved. This piece or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in reviews. ||||| 
 
 The building in Accra, Ghana, where an organized crime ring flew an American flag, hung a photo of President Obama and claimed it was the real U.S. Embassy. (Courtesy of the State Department) 
 
 For a decade, an American flag flew outside a battered pink building in Ghana’s capital city, welcoming out-of-town visitors who, once inside, found a photo of President Obama hanging on the wall. Signs confirmed to travelers — who had been bused in from the most remote parts of West Africa — that they had arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Accra. 
 
 The “consular officers” working there were not Americans, but they spoke English and Dutch and issued official-looking visas and identification papers. They charged their customers $6,000. 
 
 Billboards and fliers advertised the official services. 
 
 But there was nothing official about them. The real U.S. Embassy in Accra is white, not pink, and it sits on a large piece of land inside security fences in one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods. 
 
 The battered building with the flag and Obama picture was a fake — ran by Ghanaian and Turkish organized crime rings and a Ghanaian lawyer practicing immigration and criminal law, the State Department said in a statement. 
 
 “For about a decade it operated unhindered,” the statement said. “The criminals running the operation were able to pay off corrupt officials to look the other way, as well as obtain legitimate blank documents to be doctored.” 
 
 Officials said they shut down the fraudulent operation during the summer after an informant tipped off the assistant investigator for the Regional Security Office. The investigation in Ghana stemmed from a larger State Department initiative, Operation Spartan Vanguard, which was created by the RSO to “address trafficking and fraud plaguing the U.S. Embassy and the region,” according to the statement. 
 
 
 
 The real U.S. Embassy in Ghana. (Courtesy of the State Department) 
 
 The State Department released information about the investigation Nov. 2, but the news is being widely reported only now. The story seems to have been first reported by Ghanaian media last week, and it cites the statement from one month ago on the State Department website. The information was not contained in a news release from the State Department or its Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but in a “behind the scenes” article written by diplomatic security staff. 
 
 In it, officials did not say how many people, if any, may have entered the United States illegally with documentation from the fake embassy or how the crime ring got hold of what the state department called “fraudulently obtained, legitimate U.S. visas.” 
 
 State Department officials in Ghana deferred questions to the media office in Washington, which did not immediately respond to a request for more information. 
 
 The sham embassy, authorities said, did not allow walk-in appointments but instead recruited customers from remote parts of West Africa and even targeted people in the neighboring countries of Ivory Coast and Togo with billboards and fliers. They would shuttle customers to Accra, rent them rooms in a nearby hotel and then shuttle them to the fake embassy, which only operated on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to noon. 
 
 The Turkish citizens posing as “consulate officers,” officials said, issued U.S. work visas, counterfeit visas and false Ghanaian identification papers, such as bank and education records and birth certificates. 
 
 
 
 Fake passports and documentation obtained in the raids. (Courtesy of the U.S. State Department) 
 
 The RSO investigator, with officers from the Ghana Police Force, verified the initial informant tip and then formed an international task force that included the Ghana Detective Bureau, Ghana SWAT and Canadian Embassy officials. 
 
 They exposed the shabby pink building as the crime ring’s central hub and discovered two other locations — a dress shop and an apartment building — that were satellite operators. 
 
 A raid at the dress shop derailed the investigation when the “corrupt Ghanaian attorney” lied to local police, officials said, telling law enforcement they could not enter the shop because it was involved in a different court case. 
 
 That court case, though, did not exist — it was a decoy meant to buy time for “corrupt officials” to find money and bail out of jail members of the crime ring, officials said. The group then moved the document-production facility — including a purported industrial sewing machine that bound the fake passports — outside Accra and exported the fraudulent documents from the dress shop to Europe and other parts of Africa. 
 
 “Several suspects” were arrested during the raids, State Department officials said, but they did not specify how many. Warrants have been issued for the suspects who escaped and Ghanaian police plan to pursue them. Officials said the investigation is ongoing. 
 
 Evidence collected during the raids included a laptop computer, smartphones, counterfeit-identity documents, 150 passports from 10 countries, and legitimate and counterfeit visas from the United States, the Schengen area of Europe, India and South Africa. 
 
 The creation of fraudulent documents has decreased by 70 percent since Operation Spartan Vanguard commenced, officials said, but called this “only the beginning.” 
 
 In Africa, many people seek visas for Western countries such as the United States, making production of fake documents at steep prices a profitable business model for crime rings, Reuters reported. 
 
 Similar operations have been busted in Accra, including one in January that had been making and selling fake documents for 13 years. In that investigation, authorities found 190 passports, three printers, one camera, 75 different rubber stamps, two lamination machines and a laptop, Modern Ghana reported. Three men were arrested. 
 
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 When you stepped inside a building in Accra, Ghana, you were greeted by an American flag and a photo of President Obama. It wasn’t the U.S. Embassy, however. 
 
 It was not operated by the United States government, but by figures from both Ghanaian and Turkish organized crime rings and a Ghanaian attorney practicing immigration and criminal law. The "consular officers" were Turkish citizens who spoke English and Dutch. 
 
 
 
 One of several buildings used by the disrupted fraud ring in Accra, Ghana. (U.S. Department of State photo) 
 
 For about a decade it operated unhindered; the criminals running the operation were able to pay off corrupt officials to look the other way, as well as obtain legitimate blank local documents to be doctored or counterfeited. 
 
 This past summer the assistant regional security officer investigator (ARSO-I) at the real U.S. Embassy in Accra, in cooperation with the Ghana Police Force, Ghana Detectives Bureau, and other international partners, shut down this “fake embassy.” 
 
 
 
 Exterior of the legitimate U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana (U.S. Department of State photo) 
 
 This investigation is a small part of the broader “Operation Spartan Vanguard" initiative. "Operation Spartan Vanguard" was developed by Diplomatic Security agents in the Regional Security Office (RSO) at U.S. Embassy Ghana in order to address trafficking and fraud plaguing the U.S. Embassy and the region. 
 
 During the course of another fraud investigation in "Operation Spartan Vanguard" an informant tipped off the ARSO-I about the fraudulent document operation, as well as a fake Netherlands embassy operating in Accra. 
 
 After receiving the tip, the ARSO-I, who is the point person in the RSO shop for "Operation Spartan Vanguard" investigations, verified the information with partners within the Ghanaian Police Force. The ARSO-I then created an international task force composed of the aforementioned Ghana Police Force, as well as the Ghana Detective Bureau, Ghana SWAT, and officials from the Canadian Embassy to investigate further. 
 
 The investigation identified the main architects of the criminal operation and several satellite locations (including a dress shop and an apartment building) used for operations. The “fake embassy” did not accept walk-in visa appointments; instead, they drove to the most remote parts of West Africa to find customers, advertising their services through flyers and billboards to cultivate customers from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Togo. They would shuttle the customers to Accra, and rent them a room at a hotel nearby. The Ghanaian organized crime ring would shuttle the victims to and from the fake embassies. Locating the document vendor within the group led investigators to uncover the satellite locations and key players. 
 
 When the task force conducted raids, they arrested several suspects and collected evidence that included a laptop computer; cell smart phones; counterfeit identity documents; and 150 lost, stolen, or purchased passports from 10 countries. A small number of these passports contained expired U.S. visas. The criminals would either chemically wash and doctor expired visas or use them as a blueprint in an attempt to create counterfeit visa foils. The fraud ring sold these expired and counterfeit visas and other false identification documents (including bank records, education records, birth certificates, and others) for a cost of $6,000. 
 
 The dress shop acted as both a front for the operation—it was open to the general public for alterations and the purchase of dresses—as well as housing some of the document production. It was purported to house an industrial sewing machine they would use to re-create the binding on the fake passports. 
 
 During the raid on the dress shop the corrupt Ghanaian attorney lied to Ghanaian detectives by telling them they were not allowed to access the shop because it was involved in an additional court case. 
 
 The "additional court case" was determined to be fallacious, but it bought enough time for corrupt officials to arrange for bail for members of the organized crime group so that they could move the document production facility outside of Accra. Many of the documents also were exported elsewhere in Africa and to Europe through the dress shop. 
 
 Several suspects remain at large, but Ghanaian police have warrants for their arrest and plan to pursue them. The investigation and search for the Turkish organized crime group is ongoing. 
 
 After the operation was complete, both Interpol and the Bureau of Consular Affairs were sent the information collected to enter into their databases. At the request of the Ghana Police, DS Computer Forensic Lab will be assisting with forensic evaluation of the computer equipment seized in the operation. 
 
 Successful interagency operations like this are an essential part of investigating and stopping the well-connected criminal networks perpetrating passport and visa fraud. The regional security officer in Ghana reports that as a result of this and other raids in “Operation Spartan Vanguard,” the export of fraudulent documents have decreased by 70 percent in West Africa, criminal leaders no longer have the political cover they once had, and multiple other investigative avenues have opened to DS and other law enforcement partners, and this is only the beginning. 
 

– All it takes to convince people you're a US Embassy is an American flag, a picture of President Obama, and a whole lot of visas—at least in Ghana, where a ramshackle building in Accra housed a phony embassy really run by organized crime members from Ghana and Turkey, the Guardian reports. What wasn't fake: the US visas they got their hands on and doled out for the past decade. "The criminals running the operation were able to pay off corrupt officials to look the other way, as well as obtain legitimate blank documents to be doctored," the US State Department said in a Nov. 2 statement (per the Washington Post, the news is only being widely reported now). A visa could be had for $6,000 from "consular officers" who were really Turkish citizens speaking English and Dutch; customers could also get other documents, including phony birth certificates and bank statements. The "embassy," only open three days a week, advertised itself on billboards and in fliers in Ghana and other West African countries. The process of obtaining a visa legally in Ghana is a "dreadful experience," per the Ghana Business News, which is how these con operations flourish. This initiative was discovered after an informant tipped off an investigator involved in a larger trafficking and fraud probe in the area; the fraudulent business was shuttered over the summer. Officials aren't saying how workers acquired the real US visas, or how many people were actually able to enter the US using them or other fake paperwork. "Several suspects" were busted during the raid, per the State Department, with "several" still on the loose. Also unearthed during the investigation: a fake Dutch operation. (Meanwhile, Afghan interpreters who helped US troops were denied visas.)