By Abdullah Rabiiba
As Ugandans across the country rushed to deposit their last coins and enter the new financial year free of liabilities, an economic saboteur in Mbale had different plans that involved evading taxes and destabilizing market prices.
His plans were, however, doomed from the start, as URA’s enforcement team in Mbale was privy to his plans.
“Our intelligence tipped us off about a conspiracy involving a truck planning to deliver smuggled wheat flour from Kween District to Mbale,” narrates Pius Nyongera, a customs official in Mbale.
The team got to work, laying a strategic ambush along the anticipated route. They set out to apprehend the smugglers before they entered Ngenge trading center; this attempt was futile as the smugglers outsmarted the officers.
The culprits arrived at the trading center nonetheless, and that is when the officers got a chance to stop them, only for the driver to escape, leaving the vehicle locked.
This did not deter the officers who tried to open the vehicle for verification and towing. Luck seemed to elude them as the community became rowdy, pelting stones at them. UPDF came to their rescue salvaging the situation assisted by Bulambuli Police and the Chepsikunya Army Battalion.
By the end of the operation, five boda bodas had been impounded 200 cartons of wheat recovered.
Offense management is underway.
Nyongera notes that smugglers are constantly evolving and adopting new tactics, such as changing their routes, means of conveyance, stocking patterns, and even planting informers in and around URA offices to successfully deliver their loot to the market.
To counteract these new tactics, the enforcement team has also launched a strategy that involves recruiting new informers and conducting reconnaissance visits to learn the smugglers’ new routes and consolidation points.
