Police burst suspected car theft racket

Nov 24, 2020

The suspected car thieves have a number of files against them at Mukono, Old Kampala, and other police stations.

The Police Flying Squad has busted a racket of suspected car thieves. 

The suspects are accused of stealing 14 cars in a period of 90 days within the Kampala Metropolitan Area. The cars were allegedly stolen from the areas of Mukono, Seeta, Kampala, and Entebbe in Wakiso district.

Godwin Tumuramye the Flying Squad boss, said they started the operation in August after a number of people especially from Mukono complained about the rampant theft of cars in their area.

"We mounted an operation where we arrested four people, Gideon Namanya aka Tumusiime Kanyankore a resident of Kitega zone, Mukono Municipality, Abdul Karim Ndimkukaga a resident of Munyonyo in Makindye, William Ssali aka Byarugaba Kikumi a resident of Lungujja, Rubaga Municipality and John Wandera a resident of Kalagi in Mukono district," Tumuramye said.

The racket is accused of employing a tactic of jumping over people's perimeter walls at night and driving out cars.

(Photo by Joseph Makumbi)

The suspects are also accused of pushing the vehicles out of the fences, later starting the engines from a place far away from the owners' while they allegedly steal other vehicles from the roadsides.

"After stealing the cars, they tamper with the chassis number and engine numbers but our forensics teams have all the expertise to trace and recover the original numbers," Tumuramye said.

He added that, at times, they use super glue to erase the chassis and engine numbers while others use an engraving machine to create new numbers on the chassis and engine but, the forensics department uses a special chemical to reveal the original numbers.

He warned people who sell cars for scrap with number plates and logbooks that, the thieves have a tendency of using those number plates and chassis numbers from stolen vehicles.

"We are working closely with the Uganda Revenue Authority to ascertain the real owners of some of the cars we managed to recover," Tumuramye said.

The suspected car thieves have a number of files against them at Mukono, Old Kampala, and other police stations.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});