ISO RAIDS CITY SHOPS

By Geoffrey Kamali INTERNAL Security Organisation (ISO) officers yesterday raided shops on Luwuum and William streets, Kampala suspected to sell stolen household property. ISO had earlier raided Nkere Zone in Luwafu, Makindye, a city suburb, said to be “a clearing house” where the robbers sell their loot. Over 60 suspected robbers and their accomplices were arrested in the operation, the second in a week.Deputy ISO director Col. Elly Kayanja, who led the operation, said they recovered a lot of property “enough to fill two big lorries.” The suspects were undergoing screening, he said.At Nkere zone, the operatives stormed the ‘clearing house’ at the residence of the late Birikadde at dawn as the thugs returned from a robbing spree. The properties included electronics, mainly second hand TVs, music systems, video decks, furniture, carpets and other household wares. Over 20 ‘traders’ were arrested and about two dozen shops closed on the two streets after they failed to account for their goods with purchase receipts and invoices. Their shop keys and mobile phones were confiscated to try and match the robbers’ numbers after the operation, Kayanja said.Kayanja, whose military attire was soiled with mud, said the traders go to the ‘clearing house’ where they select items for sale in their shops. He said new buyers were then followed to their homes and the same properties robbed again. “They sell blood-stained property. Some of them spend the night shooting people,” Kayanja told onlookers on Luwum Street as some of the suspects were whisked away.One of the most wanted suspects only identified as Bakali, who Kayanja accused of holding and hiring out three guns to the robbers, however, slipped away.“He is holding our three guns and I want them. Someone should tell him to return them by all means, or else we shall kill him,” Kayanja said.Later, Kayanja arrested two youths whose identities were not yet known, as they tried to con a Brazilian tourist, Jacques Matone. The trio were seated in a dark-tinted Pajero when Kayanja pounced on them.When quizzed, Matone claimed the youths had just given him a ride to “show me around Kampala.” He said they picked him from Ntinda as he looked for a water rafting company.At Kyaka United, on Luwuum Street, 13 people were stopped from leaving the premises after one suspect named the shop as the point where he sold stolen property.There was commotion as uniformed and plain-clothes security agents, totting guns and pistols, raided one shop after another. The traffic was held for several hours as spectators jammed the streets. Some of the closed shops were Kyaka United, Jordan photo studio, Judico enterprises, Frenic shop inside Avemar shopping arcade, Kabale Muguluka Enterprises, K & Family shop, all on Luwuum Street.Others were Deira Used Furniture, General Thrift Stores, Equator Perf works, R & D General Enterprises and MK furniture Mart on William street, which could not account for the old furniture sold there. Ends