By Kabahweza Kamugisha
URA has arrested three Somali nationals for failure to disclose large sums of money in transit. The three were apprehended at the Oraba border as they attempted to cross into Uganda from South Sudan. The identified Somalis were; Hassan Hussein, Guhad Ismael and Abdirahman Farah.
Hassan Hussein was found in possession of Seventy million, one hundred and sixty-two thousand Ugandan shillings (UGX 70,162,000/=), Guhad Ismael, forty-three million Uganda Shillings (UGX 43,000,000/=) and Abdirahman Farah, Nine million, one hundred and four thousand Uganda shillings (UGX 9,104,000/=), one hundred and ninety-six US dollars (USD 196) and twenty-three thousand and forty (23,040) South Sudan pounds.
According to Philip Ofubo, the arrest of these suspects followed intelligence reports of a group of Somali nationals often crossing the border with large sums of money.
Ofubo noted that aware of the requirement of declaration to customs of large sums of money in transit and conscious of the security risk of such unlawful conveyance of monies pose- such as funding subversive and terrorist activities, they swung into action and laid a trap that was successful.
The Anti Money Laundering Act 2013 created a law for cross border movements of currency and negotiable bearer instruments which calls on persons with money exceeding 1,500 currency points (UGX 30,000,000) to notify URA which the Somalis failed to comply with.
The Act further imposes an offence for failure to report to URA conveyance of cash in and out of Uganda and a penalty of imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years or a fine not exceeding 100,000 currency points (UGX 2 billion) or both.
For now, Immigration and the Financial Intelligence Authority have taken on the case to investigate the three suspects further. However, one of the suspects-Abdirahman Farah has since been released because the amount he had was below the threshold.
