15 held over stolen Stanbic Bank cash
Mar 21, 2005
Fifteen suspects have been arrested over the sh700m stolen from a Securicor Gray Company bullion van on February 7.
By Abraham Odeke
Fifteen suspects have been arrested over the sh700m stolen from a Securicor Gray Company bullion van on February 7.
The Police also recovered sh200m given to them as ‘interest-free loans’ by Joseph Ogola, the alleged leader of the gang.
Ogola and two others still at large stole the money Stanbic Bank contracted them to escort from Mbale to Iganga.
Ogola was the commandant of security team that escorted the van.
The suspects include pork roasters and moneychangers operating on the Uganda-Kenya border town of Malaba.
They appeared in court and were remanded in Morukatipe Prison.
One of the suspects said Ogola tricked him that the money was payment for his early retirement package from the security company where he worked as a guard.
Ogola handed in himself at Tororo Police station last week.
Tororo district CID chief Mohammed Atepu said his team, the Violent Crime Crack Unit and the Military Intelligence helped to arrest the suspects mainly from West Budama County. The majority of the suspects received between sh5m and sh50m.
A pork roaster who received sh50m led the Police to a thick bush where he had kept the money in an eagle’s nest on top of a big tree.
“Others wrapped the money in plastic bags before burying it under anthills. Others hid it in the compounds and in big pots containing water in their grass-thatched houses,†Atepu said.
Fifteen suspects have been arrested over the sh700m stolen from a Securicor Gray Company bullion van on February 7.
The Police also recovered sh200m given to them as ‘interest-free loans’ by Joseph Ogola, the alleged leader of the gang.
Ogola and two others still at large stole the money Stanbic Bank contracted them to escort from Mbale to Iganga.
Ogola was the commandant of security team that escorted the van.
The suspects include pork roasters and moneychangers operating on the Uganda-Kenya border town of Malaba.
They appeared in court and were remanded in Morukatipe Prison.
One of the suspects said Ogola tricked him that the money was payment for his early retirement package from the security company where he worked as a guard.
Ogola handed in himself at Tororo Police station last week.
Tororo district CID chief Mohammed Atepu said his team, the Violent Crime Crack Unit and the Military Intelligence helped to arrest the suspects mainly from West Budama County. The majority of the suspects received between sh5m and sh50m.
A pork roaster who received sh50m led the Police to a thick bush where he had kept the money in an eagle’s nest on top of a big tree.
“Others wrapped the money in plastic bags before burying it under anthills. Others hid it in the compounds and in big pots containing water in their grass-thatched houses,†Atepu said.