Smuggler's Christmas phones bounty uncovered, over 8,000 pieces found

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) enforcement team has seized over 8,000 smuggled  pieces of phones in Iganga.

This follows information recently received by URA about the consolidation centre of a suspected smuggler who had stocked the phones without passing through the legal channels of the customs office. 

The suspect is believed to have been aiming to make big festive season sales on the cheap. Unfortunately for the suspect, this did not go as planned as the URA enforcement team foiled his plans.

“On opening the gate, they were welcomed by unexpected guests [URA enforcement officers]. At the first glance one could think the premises had no valuables,” Winifred Kusiima, one of the officers part of deployment narrated.

According to Kusiima, the smuggled phones had been hidden in a room where these items were disguised in old dirty plywood. 

However, the URA team checked everywhere especially the unfinished part of the residence and discovered several boxes.

Upon opening the boxes at the URA offices, a number of phones and accessories were discovered, and these included; 61 cartons x 60pieces of Itel button phone Model: it2160, 1 Carton x 40 pieces of Itel button phone Model: it562, 4 Cartons x 60 pieces of Itel button phone Model: it2173 among other items.

Recently, URA has intensified intelligence guided operations leveraging the use of Non-Intrusive Inspection technology at the border points and field intelligence enforcement operations.