Crime gang uses false passports to steal cars

Kampala

The police have arrested two men thought to be leaders of an elite gang of car thieves whose networks cut across seven countries in the region. In a case that speaks of an internationally coordinated syndicate of sophisticated crime, the suspects do not only possess passports from various African countries but also pose as diplomats or foreigners employed by international agencies to dupe their victims.

The two men, Collins Ndyabahika and Ronald Byaruhanga, were arrested in May and are currently detained in Malukhu Prison in Mbale where they were arraigned before the Chief Magistrate’s Court. Details of their dealings, however, have only become public now. According to security officials who had been trailing the men before they were finally arrested, hotels and international agencies were the key targets of the suspects, who would dupe them into handing over their mainly high-end cars on a silver platter.

Once they had the cars, the racket, which detectives say has tens of players, would then sell them in DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and as far as Malawi and Zambia. The duo were bust after Mr Ndyabahika early this year booked into a prime hotel in Mbale using a forged Liberian passport naming him as John Buller Vanney. Once in the hotel, he contacted a transport agency, Hill Creast Safaris, indicating that he was an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross and that he needed to hire a car to visit Bududa. The district is home to camps for those displaced by landslides.

He reportedly asked for a Toyota Land Cruiser but the agency only had a Toyota Corolla available. Ndyabahika indicated he could use the smaller car after handing over his fake Liberian passport and drove off. He never returned.

The company reported to police which then began the hunt for Ndyabahika. On May 3, after weeks of tracking the cell phone he had been using, Mr Ndyabahika was arrested in Old Kampala, a city suburb.

In his possession were three other fake passports. He had a Sierra Leonean passport that named him Edward Sesay Gbassay, a South African passport naming him as Benon Chifuku Chhana and a Sudanese passport identifying him as Ahmed Salih Hamaida Salih. Each passport had his true image.

The passports had visas showing that he had travelled around East Africa with the Sierra Leonean one bearing Kenyan and Congolese entry visas. Upon further interrogation, he implicated his co-suspect Byaruhanga, whom the police arrested two days later in the same neighbourhood.

Documents before court indicate that the call records from Ndyabahika’s phone show that he had been in touch with an inmate in Luzira Prison through a warden. The inmate turned out to be one of the four Bulgarian nationals recently convicted for ATM fraud.
Quizzed about the Toyota Corolla, Ndyabahika said it had been sold in Burundi. The car is yet to be recovered.

Speaking to Daily Monitor recently, Mr Fred Eriku, the chief detective at Mbale Central Police Station, expressed concern that it was not the first time the suspects were being arrested. He pointed out that one of the men was in 2009 served with a three-year sentence after he stole a Toyota Land Cruiser in Jinja.

The two also have a pending case at Kiira Road Police in Kampala where they reportedly attacked a foreigner living in Kololo before making away with her property. They are also accused of stealing two Land Cruisers at a Kampala hotel plus another in Nairobi, Kenya. They also have a car theft case reported in Kabale.

According to security officials who spoke to Daily Monitor about the workings of this gang but asked for anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media, hotels, travel agencies and foreigners are the biggest targets.

“At times, they hire the cars and actually return them. But when they do that, it is after they have copied the car keys. They then trail the car and steal it from where it has been parked,” said the official, who added that information obtained from the two was turning helpful in fighting car theft. But as the two await justice, having been charged with theft, there is confusion as to why possessing fake travel documents was never included in the charge sheet even when exhibits have been adduced in court.

The head of Interpol in Uganda, Mr Asan Kasingye, said it was the responsibility of the police in Mbale to refer the case to his unit, something they had not. “However, because of the importance of this matter, I will direct my commissioners to investigate immediately,” he said when Daily Monitor put the matter to him.

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