Uganda hands over UK stolen luxury vehicles

UK National vehicle crime intelligence service officials checking the vehicles which were handed over by Uganda. Photo by Alex Esagala

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Tuesday handed over 24 top of the range motor vehicles suspected to have been stolen from the United Kingdom.
The cars, including BMWs, Audis, Lexus and Range Rovers, among others were handed over by URA commissioner general, Doris Akol to the British High Commissioner Alison Blackburn and other UK National Crime Agency officials at URA headquarters in Nakawa, Kampala.
The vehicles were impounded by URA pending police investigations into how they entered the country.

They are estimated to be worth £1 million (Shs4.9b) and are some of the many stolen through a well-coordinated racket involving car dealers, customs officials and car bonds across East Africa.
The racket, according to Interpol has a well-oiled network spread through Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan.
Last year, according to a report by Daily Mail, detectives through the UK National Crime Agency, followed up on a Lexus stolen from London, UK, discovering a fleet of luxury vehicles, some of which had been reported as missing in UK.

Mr Asan Kasingye, the director of Interpol in Uganda said Tuesday they were not only “committed to repatriating stolen MVs (motor vehicles) to countries of origin but also prosecuting offenders”.
Some of the vehicles, which have been handed over carry registration plates similar to those of DR Congo, which is testimony to a well-tailored ring suspected to stretch as far as Southern and Central Africa.

Findings according to the UK National Crime Agency, which were published by the Daily Mail last year, indicate that one of the stolen cars was shipped through port Le Havre, in France before moving through the Suez Canal down to Oman in the Middle East.
The car was then shipped to Mombasa Port in Kenya before finding its way by road into a car bond in Kampala.
Ms Akol said URA will continuously work with Interpol and other governments, particularly the UK to crackdown on international crimes involving car jerking.