Some churches and administrative offices of religious organisations were allegedly exploited by criminal syndicates as cover for counterfeit currency operations, the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has disclosed.

The revelation follows an intelligence-led crackdown by the NSCS, in collaboration with relevant security and intelligence agencies, which dismantled four counterfeit currency printing hubs and led to the arrest of 16 suspects.

According to the NSCS, analysis of the dismantled syndicates uncovered a pattern in which some of the suspects allegedly used religious facilities to conceal their activities and evade suspicion.

The security agency said the premises offered the criminals an environment that helped suppress the noise and vibration generated by industrial printing machines.

The facilities were also allegedly used to store counterfeit currency materials while enabling the syndicates to operate with minimal suspicion from surrounding communities.

Beyond the use of religious facilities, the NSCS said the syndicates operated through structured networks involving cross-border facilitators, technical printing operators and commercial courier or dispatch riders.

The dispatch riders, according to the security agency, relied largely on motorcycles to distribute the counterfeit currency to various locations.

The scale of the counterfeiting operations was further highlighted by the seizure of millions of finished counterfeit notes and large quantities of unprocessed coupons.

Four printing machines, reportedly capable of producing millions of counterfeit notes daily, were also intercepted during the crackdown.

The NSCS said the seizure of the machines and counterfeit currency materials had helped avert potential threats to Ghana’s financial system and the integrity of the country’s currency.

The operation forms part of ongoing efforts by Ghana’s security and intelligence agencies to dismantle organised criminal networks involved in currency counterfeiting and prevent the circulation of fake notes in the economy.

The findings also highlight the increasingly structured nature of the alleged counterfeiting networks, involving multiple actors from the production stage through to storage and distribution.