KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Uganda Police Flying Squad Unit has launched a manhunt for unknown armed thugs who took off with gold worth shs5.5 billion from a dealer’s vehicle in Kiryandongo.
The incident happened on Friday last week around 12am in Bweyale town council, Kiryandongo district when the thugs, donning military-like fatigue with an AK-47 and pistol robbed eight bags belonging to the dealer identified as (Metal Testing and Melting Company).
The occupants of the dealer’s vehicle have been identified as; Mumbere Mufazaala, the driver and his co-driver Gobuli Charles who had loaded the eight packets of gold and were destined for Kampala to test at the company’s offices.
Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga explained that three armed men traveling in a Toyota Wish blocked another vehicle that was destined to Kampala for testing the gold and ordered the occupants to vacate the vehicle, before tying them up and robbing the gold packets.
“The employees of the company that deals in gold and sodium who were driving a vehicle registration number UBE 081M were along the way intercepted by unknown thugs who were traveling in a Toyota Wish,” Enanga noted while addressing journalists on Tuesday at police headquarters in Naguru.
He added that, these (the employees) were later tied and beaten by the armed assailants who later robbed the eight gold packets as well as their phones before abandoning the victims and drove off to an unknown destination towards Kampala.
“We have dispatched Flying Squad because this is a very sensitive operation involving items worth billions of shillings,” Enanga noted, before blaming the melting and testing company of risking the luggage by transporting it without assigning any security personnel to accompany it since it was worth huge sums of money.
“We believe there is an inside job considering how the thugs got to know about the gold being transported. Investigations will help us find out all this.”
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