According to Twine, suspects are mostly foreigners from the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC (5), Cameroon, (2) Nigerians and (1) Ugandan. The Congolese came to Uganda as refugees. During the operation, police also recovered brass rods, powder and fake gold and different oils.
At least
eight people have been arrested in a predawn raid by the Uganda Police Force on
a property in Munyonyo, a Kampala suburb targeting dealers in counterfeit
currency and fake gold.
Charles
Twine, the Spokesperson of the Criminal Investigations Directorate-CID, says the
suspects were found with counterfeit currency notes worth US$2.4M about
Shillings 9 billion that was ready for circulation in Uganda and abroad.
According to
Twine, suspects are mostly foreigners from the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC
(5), Cameroon, (2) Nigerians and (1) Ugandan. The Congolese came to Uganda as
refugees. During the operation, police also recovered brass rods,
powder and fake gold and different oils.
The
development comes days after a joint security team comprising the police, the
military and intelligence organs arrested Lt. Enoch Katwesigye Kyebijunga, a
retired UPDF soldier in a gold scam that saw an American National lose over US$3.5m
close to Shillings 13 billion.
He was
charged for money laundering together with city lawyer Simon Peter Musangala
and Martin Bwayo, a police officer. During investigations, detectives
discovered that fraudsters were claiming to be representing top army generals
in the gold deals. Cases of fake gold deals have been on the rise in recent
years. Investigators say such scams threaten the country’s gold business.
“Through the interagency, we got information that there was part of their
previous case of Katwesigye and his group of three that we arrested and charged
in court. They have been operating under the disguise of a company called Kings-way
Uganda Limited purportedly a clearing agent,” said Twine.
He says they found the company very relevant
to the previous cases.
//Cue, we have found that ……
Cue out ….. There counts were //
He said that police stations and CID offices
have received very many cases of people who have been conned with the
counterfeits. He said the operations dubbed "Manya Wokoma" literally meaning
“know where to stop” will continue.
//Cue, all police stations ……
Cue out very many cases…..//
In 2018, police in Entebbe arrested nine people for their involvement in a fake
gold scam worth USD 160000-(Shs 576m). They included Dorcus Chibatsi, Samson
Onyango Wesonga, a Kenyan National, Godfrey Kadimba, a security guard at
Rangers security limited.
Others were Manda Mpyi Rajiv, a Congolese national, Immaculate Nsimire, a
receptionist at Gold Soko Africa Limited, Bachigeya Milenge and Hagen Sadriki
Mustafa Ahoneze, all workers of Gold Soko Africa Limited. Gold
is Uganda’s official second-largest export after coffee.
According to the Bank
of Uganda, it will even become more important in the year ahead. Uganda earned UGX
590 billion from gold exports in June 2020.
