A picture taken in Conakry on October 12, 2020, shows a view of the city centre. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP)
Conakry: The director of Guinea's customs department and 10 others were detained Saturday in a probe into the alleged embezzlement of more than 700 billion Guinean francs ($81.2 million), a prosecutor said.
Aly Toure, a prosecutor at a special court for financial crimes (CRIEF), said on Friday that an investigation had been opened "into cases of embezzlement, misappropriation and corruption in the customs department".
The probe showed that "a network of customs officers and several freight forwarders operates at the general directorate of customs to bypass the classic single-window payment process to collect funds to the detriment of the state", he said in a statement read out on national television station RTG.
He added that the network had allegedly embezzled "more than 700 billion Guinean francs ($81.2 million)".
Toure on Saturday said the director general of customs, Moussa Camara, his deputy Macky Diallo and nine others implicated in the case had been detained in the capital Conakry's central prison.
"We've taken everyone to prison. The director general and all those accompanying him", he told AFP.
They are charged with alleged "forgery, corruption, embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, money laundering and complicity", he added.
A senior customs official speaking on condition of anonymity gave the same information to AFP by telephone.
