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GIFTY ASIEDU, a 32-year-old woman believed to be a member of a car-snatching syndicate operating in some parts of the country, is in the grips of the Obuasi Police in the Ashanti Region. The arrest of the woman came shortly after the arrest of four persons who confessed to snatching 12 vehicles within a space of three months, bringing the total number of arrested car snatchers to five. The police said Gifty was part of the robbery gang, with the other members being Samuel Obiri Yeboah, 23, Kingsley Nkrumah Dick, 20, Samuel Kyei, 28, and Richard Asebiah Moore, 22, all residents of Obuasi. Gifty Asiedu claimed she was a resident of McCarthy Hill in Accra. DSP Mathew Asante, Obuasi Municipal Police Commander, told DAILY GUIDE that Dunkwa, Obuasi, Nkwakwa, and Kumasi had been the operational areas of the gangsters. According to him, Gifty was arrested when she went to the Obuasi Central Police station to plead for the release of one of the suspected robbers, Samuel Obiri Yeboah. She was being sought by police detectives at the station without her knowledge, after she and her gang snatched an Opel Astra taxi cab with registration number AS 4303-12 from the driver, Kwaku Atta aka Kolumbey, on March 10, 2012 at Obuasi, the police commander said. DSP Asante explained that while Kolumbey, a cabbie who shuttled between Ayamfure and Dunkwa in the Central Region, was loading passengers at Dunkwa, the lady managed to lure him to Obuasi under the pretext of chasing her debtor. Without suspecting any foul play, Kolumbey drove Gifty to a place called �Kwaku Bosam� junction in Obuasi where she and her gang snatched the complainant�s Opel Astra taxi around 7.00pm. The police commander said even though they had set off around 4:30pm from Ayamfure, Gifty intentionally delayed the driver on the way, compelling him to make stopovers at different places for her to drink and urinate before getting to Obuasi late during which the car was snatched. According to the police boss, in January 2011 and on March 10, 2012, the police monitored the activities of the suspects and their syndicate after the service was inundated with complaints of car snatching. DSP Asante said the police mapped out strategies to clamp down on the activities of the suspects, and following a tip off, Richard Moore and Samuel Kyei aka Kwadwo Owusu were arrested. The police commander said while Richard Moore, unemployed, was arrested on the night of March 3, 2012 in the course of a car heist, his accomplice, Samuel Kyei, a driver, was arrested on March 6, 2012 following a tip-off. He stated that the arrest of the duo led to the arrest of Kingsley Nkrumah and Samuel Obiri Yeboah some days later. According to him, the suspects and their ring leader, one Boyson, hatched a plan to snatch a taxi cab in Obuasi on March 3 this year, and therefore commissioned Richard Moore to look for a brand new Opel Astra Caravan or a Kia Rio to hire. DSP Asante narrated that the leader instructed Richard to send the taxi cab to a certain spot at Asonkore in Obuasi where they would all meet and snatch it from the driver. Around 7.00pm the same day, the complainant, who was in charge of an Opel Astra-B caravan with registration number AS 4816 -12 was on his usual rounds at Anyinam, a suburb of Obuasi, when Moore, upon spotting the complainant, flagged him down, got onboard and asked the cabbie to take him to Asonkore. As the complainant was contemplating on the service fee to charge, an acquaintance who had fallen victim to the car snatchers a few months ago, approached the taxi and identified Richard Moore as one of his attackers. He alerted the cabbie and with the assistance of other people around, they arrested Moore and handed him over to the police. At the police station, DSP Asante said Moore confessed to the crime and added that Samuel Kyei, Obiri Yeboah and Boyson were waiting for him at Asonkore in order to carry out their �operation�. In view of this, the police escorted Moore in the complainant�s taxi cab to the agreed spot where, upon arrival, two of the gang members emerged from the bush to snatch the cab. When they realized the occupants were police officers, they ran for cover in the bush, but Kyei, who was not so lucky, was arrested. He led the police to arrest three other members as Boyson remained at large. The case is still under investigation as the police make efforts to arrest the ring leader and other members. DSP Mathew Asante said two of the vehicles had been retrieved.