A special crack unit of Uganda Police Force has conducted a raid on a property in Munyonyo, a Kampala suburb, apprehending suspected fraudsters.
Officials say the operation targeted conmen involved in illicit gold trade.
CIID spokesperson Charles Twiine said the operation is known as “manya wokoma.”
Police recovered stashes of fake dollars, brass rods, powder, fake gold during today’s operation.
The development comes days after a joint security team comprising police, the military and intelligence organs, arrested a former soldier over a gold scam that saw an American national lose over $3.8m (Shs 13bn).
Lt Enoch Katwesigye Kyebijunga, a retired UPDF officer, City Lawyer Simon Peter Musangala and a Police Officer identified as Martin Bwayo were charged with money laundering after the fake gold deal was exposed by ChimpReports.
During the investigation, detectives discovered that fraudsters were claiming to represent top army generals in the gold deals.
Cases of fake gold deals have been on the rise in recent years. Investigators say such scams threaten to taint the country’s gold business.
Gold is now Uganda’s official second-largest export after coffee, according to the Bank of Uganda, and will become even more important in the years ahead.
Uganda earned 590 billion Shillings from gold exports in June 2020.
Gold exports have more than doubled since April when the country instituted a complete lockdown.
In 2018, police in Entebbe arrested nine people who were involved in fake gold dealings worth USD160000 (Shs 576m).
They included Dorcus Chibasi, Samson Onyango Wesonga a Kenyan national; Godfrey Kadimba, a security gurad at Rangers Security Limited; Manda Mpoyi Rajiv a Congolese national; Immaculate Nsimire a receptionist at Gold Soko Africa Limited; Bachigeya Milenge andand Hagen sadiki Mustafa Ahongeze-all workers of Gold Soko Africa Limited.
The suspects were arrested from Entebbe and in Kampala before a search at their other premises in Kiwafu, Kansanga in Makindye Division.
