Kampala -The Directorate of Crime Intelligence has successfully tracked down an armed gang of robbers who target mobile money operators.
In a press statement on Wednesday, police deputy spokesperson Polly Namaye said the gang members were arrested following an intensive operation carried out by their flying Squad Unit, which recovered the police AK 47 riffle that was grabbed from a police officer of Nsangi Division on May 29, 2023.
She said on the fateful day, as the officer disembarked from a boda boda near the Division headquarters checkpoint at Nsangi, criminals ridding on motorcycles arrived, grabbed the weapon and sped off. “Since then, the police has registered four mobile money incidents, including attempted murder by shooting of one of the victims who tried to make an alarm,” says Namaye.
Namaye noted that police registered an armed robbery in Mubende, as depicted by a CCTV footage that went viral on social media and the murder of a police officer of Kassanda CPL Joseph Olaya who was part of the team that attempted to intercept the group as they fled on motorcycles from the scene. The suspects also grabbed a gun magazine belonging to the deceased.
She said that four suspects have been arrested and the motor vehicle which they have been using in the robberies has also been recovered.
“We have since established from our analysis interrogations and critical examination of the different scenes that the recovered gun was the same one used in different robberies recently by this racket,” said Namaye
“Further investigations are ongoing and we wish to reassure the public that all the criminals targeting mobile money dealers shall be brought to book,” she added encouraging anyone with useful information to share it with the nearest police station.
