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Investigations conducted by Today has revealed that residents of Ketu South in the Volta region, together with businessmen and women who patronise the Ghana-Togo border, were living in a state of fear. This worrying development, the paper gathered, was as a result of the infiltration of some persons described as �criminals� into the Aflao post of the Customs Excise Preventive Service (CEPS). These criminals, according to a highly placed source, were CEPS officers with very questionable characters. And the leader of these CEPS cartel (whose name is withheld for now) is a notorious former National Security operative and an ex-soldier. According to Today findings, this CEPS ex-soldier was axed from the Ghana Army over allegations of thievery and misconduct. Our investigations revealed that this cartel of CEPS one time stole goods which were seized from one Alhaji, a Kumasi businessman. According to reports, the corrupt CEPS officials whilst on duty one fateful day seized some goods concealed in a number of cartons from the said Alhaji at a location close to Kumasi. The said goods were later conveyed to the CEPS headquarters only to realise that it was actually some unspecified amount of Ghana cedis and US dollars that were concealed in the cartons. Unfortunately, these CEPS officials could not account for the total number of cartons seized from the Alhaji as it emerged that some of the goods went missing. It was later discovered that the ex-soldier and his friends stole some of the goods. That, Today uncovered, led to the second dismissal of the ex-soldier from public service together with his accomplices. Surprisingly however, this ex-soldier managed to be recruited into the National Security for a short while and later reinstated into CEPS under very strange circumstances. To make matters worse, our investigations unfolded that the said ex-soldier since leaving the National Security Service for his new job had not even returned the security gadgets and weapons in his possession. He [the ex-soldier] is alleged to be aiding and abetting crime in that part of the region: he allegedly distributes guns and other offensive weapons to known criminals at Aflao, who go about their nocturnal robbery activities with impunity. �He was sacked from CEPS. We were surprised to wake up one day and found him around the same offices still harassing businessmen and other passengers. He uses his position to extort money from people,� a resident said. Speaking to some business owners who do business along the Togo-Aflao border, they described the said CEPS officer as a �terrorist� who extorts money and intimidates them when going about their business activities. The aggrieved persons said on no occasion are passengers and business owners allowed to conduct clean transactions at the border without paying money to this notorious CEPS officer. His modus operandi, according to eyewitnesses, has created fear in people, a situation that serves as an obstacle to the progress of thriving businesses in the area, since no steps have been taken by the appropriate authorities to call the said officer to order. It also emerged from our investigations that the said CEPS officer sometimes gallivants the streets of Aflao in multi-coloured attires, wielding a pistol and threatening to kill people, especially those who reprimand him for misconducting himself as a public officer. However, people believe the coming back of this officer was politically engineered. They therefore called on the Ghana National Security, CEPS, Police and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to investigate the allegations and help maintain law and order in the area.