Malian national arrested with cocaine worth Shs 1.7 billion
Police over the weekend confirmed the arrest of a Malian national identified as Idrissa Traore, who was found with cocaine weighing 7 kgs worth Shs 1.7 billion at Namasuba.
The suspect has been charged on File no. CRB 48/2018.
The arrest of Traore came after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Burundi tipped off Ugandan police that he had smuggled cocaine into Uganda.
Traore is said to have been working with some Burundians.
The police swung into action and sealed off a building in Namasuba and arrested Traore who is believed to be part of a drug cartel that smuggles drugs in and out of the country .
The suspect was discovered to have lived in the country for more than 20 years and was in process of acquiring a Ugandan passport.
"We are more than committed to fighting drug smugglers, working with neighbouring countries because sometimes apart from the airports , drugs are smuggled across our porous borders," said Luke Owoyesigire, the acting spokesperson for Kampala Metropolitan.
He added: "So far two people have been arrested the first being a lady called Beatrice Isaro from Rwanda who was arrested at Entebbe airport trying to smuggle in cocaine worth Shs 397 million and a one Allen Nankanja arrested in October 2017 trying to smuggle in cocaine worth Shs 875 million into the country from Brazil."
