Police swoop on car theft racket nets British national
KAMPALA- After a seven-year hunt, police have finally arrested a Briton accused of stealing and smuggling cars from Britain into Uganda.
The Flying Squad Unit (FSU), a violent crack unit of police arrested the suspect after he was tricked by Mr Eric Alema, a victim of his erroneous car deals helped by his friend who pretended to be a car buyer.
The Briton who also possesses Ugandan passports, shot into the limelight in 2011 when he stole and sold a UK made car to Mr Alema at Shs120 million who later discovered that its in-built Global Positioning System (GPS) vital for tracking the vehicle had been dismantled perhaps to evade detection by the manufacturer.
Mr Alema, a UN employee said he had been tossed up and down by police officers especially in crime intelligence and investigations departments such as Criminal Investigations Departments (CID) and Rapid Response Unit (RRU) now FSU.
“I was tossed for several years and police officers never bothered even when I could tell them that I had information about the suspects’ whereabouts. I think they had bribed many officers in CID. I was fed up of the police jokes, I went and secured a directive from DPP [Directorate of Public Prosecutions],” Mr Alema said.
Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, confirmed on Friday that the suspect was arrested by FSU on Friday morning at Bugolobi, a Kampala City suburb in Nakawa Division.
“We have him here [Kampala Central Police Station] and we are interrogating him. We want to get good information that will help us to arrest his accomplices. It is a big racket and his arrest is an opportunity for us to arrest the whole group,” Mr Owoyesigyire said.
The cases of smuggling vehicles from UK to Uganda punched holes in Uganda Revenue Authority staff who allegedly connived with the alleged thieves to clear the stolen top-of-the-range cars, stolen from overseas, particularly the United Kingdom, to enter Uganda undetected.
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