Gang sold stolen vehicles
Oct 12, 2010
A gang arrested over a fortnight ago in connection with a series of robberies and murders allegedly formed a company in Katwe, a city suburb, for selling stolen vehicles.<br>The Police yesterday said the gang claimed the vehicles at the company belonged to loan defaulters.
By Steven Candia
A gang arrested over a fortnight ago in connection with a series of robberies and murders allegedly formed a company in Katwe, a city suburb, for selling stolen vehicles.
The Police yesterday said the gang claimed the vehicles at the company belonged to loan defaulters.
According to Kampala South Police boss Moses Kafeero, after stealing a vehicle, the thugs would kill the owner and put up the vehicle for sale.
The thugs, the Police said, would burn the bodies of the car owners to conceal evidence.
The Police did not disclose the identity of the company, but said they had lodged investigations into its activities and that several vehicles which could have been traded through it had been recovered.
Sources cited over 10 vehicles recovered in the investigations.
“They were very smart and organised and their activities were not only in Kampala but countrywide,†a source said.
Sources yesterday said it was because of the extensive nature of the gang’s activities, spanning several months, that the case was handed over to the better-facilitated Special Investigations Unit and the Rapid Response Unit.
Eight members of the group, including two women, are in Police custody.
They include Robert Ssempebwa (alias Kazawula), Charles Yiga, Ronald Asiimwe (alias Kanyankole), Kato, another only identified as Younger and Vena Ndagire, a wife of Sempebwa.
Ssempebwa and Ndagire used one of the vehicles to acquire a sh6m loan from a micro-finance institution, according to preliminary Police investigations.
Ssempebwa said this week that he was once an informant for a security agency in Uganda.
Sources said detectives recovered six pairs of vehicle number plates in a latrine at Ssempebwa’s residence in Kajjansi.
The Police said among the number plates recovered was one of a man only identified as Nkada who was reported murdered in Buwama in Mpigi district and his body dumped and set ablaze in Nakigalala on Entebbe road in Wakiso district.
A gang arrested over a fortnight ago in connection with a series of robberies and murders allegedly formed a company in Katwe, a city suburb, for selling stolen vehicles.
The Police yesterday said the gang claimed the vehicles at the company belonged to loan defaulters.
According to Kampala South Police boss Moses Kafeero, after stealing a vehicle, the thugs would kill the owner and put up the vehicle for sale.
The thugs, the Police said, would burn the bodies of the car owners to conceal evidence.
The Police did not disclose the identity of the company, but said they had lodged investigations into its activities and that several vehicles which could have been traded through it had been recovered.
Sources cited over 10 vehicles recovered in the investigations.
“They were very smart and organised and their activities were not only in Kampala but countrywide,†a source said.
Sources yesterday said it was because of the extensive nature of the gang’s activities, spanning several months, that the case was handed over to the better-facilitated Special Investigations Unit and the Rapid Response Unit.
Eight members of the group, including two women, are in Police custody.
They include Robert Ssempebwa (alias Kazawula), Charles Yiga, Ronald Asiimwe (alias Kanyankole), Kato, another only identified as Younger and Vena Ndagire, a wife of Sempebwa.
Ssempebwa and Ndagire used one of the vehicles to acquire a sh6m loan from a micro-finance institution, according to preliminary Police investigations.
Ssempebwa said this week that he was once an informant for a security agency in Uganda.
Sources said detectives recovered six pairs of vehicle number plates in a latrine at Ssempebwa’s residence in Kajjansi.
The Police said among the number plates recovered was one of a man only identified as Nkada who was reported murdered in Buwama in Mpigi district and his body dumped and set ablaze in Nakigalala on Entebbe road in Wakiso district.