{"id":135310,"date":"2015-07-17T09:14:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T09:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=135310"},"modified":"2015-07-17T11:19:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T11:19:13","slug":"anas-aremeyaws-disguises-labelled-amongst-the-worlds-best-undercover-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/07\/anas-aremeyaws-disguises-labelled-amongst-the-worlds-best-undercover-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Anas Aremeyaw’s disguises labelled amongst the world\u2019s best undercover reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few people can tell you what Ghanaian super-sleuth reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas looks like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he apologized to an audience during a 2013 TED talk, speaking through a mask.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot show you my face. If I do, the bad guys will come at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those bad guys are numerous: For over a decade, the internationally-acclaimed journalist has made it his mission to expose all stripes of criminals, from seedy outlaws to crooked cops to rotten public servants. What\u2019s more incredible is how he\u2019s done it\u2014with inventive ruses and elaborate disguises that make James Bond\u2019s adventures seem snoozy by comparison. We\u2019ve collected a few of his most memorable busts, along with tips on how he pulled them off, here.<\/p>\n

1. A PEANUT HAWKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

After earning his degree from the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Anas landed a gig at The Crusading Guide newspaper in 1999. His first scoop stemmed from a simple question: If street hawking is illegal in the city of Accra, why was it so rampant along one of its busiest motorways? The answer lay in a popular peanut snack called Nkatie Burger. Anas posed as a hawker, hustling the treat to motorists stuck in traffic. In the process, he learned that cops were taking bribes from the hawkers. After seven days of reporting, he had his proof, and his story. At TED, he reflected on that first assignment. \u201cI thought that I should do it in a different way,\u201d he said, \u201cso that it has maximum impact.\u201d The statement more or less sums up his career.<\/p>\n

2. A ROCK<\/strong>
\nOf Anas\u2019s many faces, there\u2019s one in which he doesn\u2019t have a face at all\u2014just two small eyeholes cut into what looks like an enormous, crinkled paper bag. Silly? Maybe.<\/p>\n

\"screen_shot_2015-05-26_at_2.04.30_pm\"<\/a>
Anas as arock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But his impression of a giant rock is also effective: In 2010, Anas used the disguise near a border post at the Ghana-C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire crossing to spy on trucks from the roadside. As it turned out, the trucks were smuggling cocoa beans across the border. Anas\u2019s report helped the police build a rock-solid case.<\/p>\n

3. A COP<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"cop2\"<\/a>
Anas as a policeman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anas is known to collaborate with police (a method that would make his journalism controversial by American standards). He\u2019s also been known to impersonate them. When he went after customs corruption at Ghana\u2019s Port of Tema, he dressed in a dark blue uniform with pants tucked into combat boots, a walkie-talkie, and aviator sunglasses. Anas played the part perfectly, witnessing how customs officers were aiding the smugglers inside the nation\u2019s leading seaport. The report led officials to recover $200 million in lost state funds.<\/p>\n

4. A PARENT WITH A (FAKE) BABY<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"fake_baby\"<\/a>
Anas’ fake baby prop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some communities in Ghana believe that deformed or disabled children are possessed by evil spirits. The families of these \u201cspirit children,\u201d seek out \u201cconcoction men\u201d to diagnose the so-called evil lurking within. In cases where the evil is \u201cconfirmed,\u201d they brew poison, force feed it to the children, and kill them. Anas hired one such concoction man to kill a fictitious child. To assist with the reporting, one of Anas\u2019s colleagues agreed to let him use her 18-month-old son as a stand-in. A concoction man examined the boy, and, at the last minute, Anas swapped the human baby out for a dummy. The simulacra was made by a London-based movie props company. It was so lifelike, the concoction man didn\u2019t realize he was being handed a fleshy slab of silicone. The next thing on his hands? Cuffs.<\/p>\n

5. AN ASSEMBLY LINE WORKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of Anas\u2019s hits, in 2006, took him into a cookie factory in Accra, where he posed as an assembly line worker to expose the filthy conditions there. It was a stomach-turning assignment, and his signature hidden cameras caught it all. As a story in Africa\u2019s ZAM magazine put it, Anas filmed \u201crats roaming freely in and around the food.\u201d He also got shots of the cookie company using flour that was infested with maggots and termites. Most important, he got results: The factory was shut down.<\/p>\n

6. AN OIL RIG WORKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometime around the beginning of 2014, Anas got a tip from Interpol about missing Vietnamese women sold into sex trafficking. Enter John Sullivan, an American oil rig worker (who was actually Anas in disguise). Along with an Arab colleague masked as a Jordanian oil magnate, \u201cSullivan\u201d sought services from the women. Once he got their pimps to offer them up, the police hiding nearby swooped in. Shortly thereafter, the Chinese nationals behind the prostitution ring were arrested.<\/p>\n

7. A SHEIKH<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"sheik\"<\/a>
Anas as a Sheikh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

8. A WOMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"screen_shot_2015-05-26_at_2.03.39_pm\"<\/a>
Anas as a woman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

9. A HOMELESS MAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"anas_homeless\"<\/a>
Anas as a homeless man<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

–<\/p>\n

Credit: mentalfloss.com and James Mollison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few people can tell you what Ghanaian super-sleuth reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas looks like. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he apologized to an audience during a 2013 TED talk, speaking through a mask. \u201cI cannot show you my face. If I do, the bad guys will come at me.\u201d Those bad guys are numerous: For over a decade, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":135316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAnas Aremeyaw's disguises labelled amongst the world\u2019s best undercover reports - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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