ENTEBBE, Uganda: ENHAS (Entebbe Handling Services), the largest ground services provider at Entebbe International Airport is on the spot for alleged connivance with Ivory smuggling racket, The Investigator has established.
Last week a cache of ivory weighing 1.3 tons worth USD3M (Ugx11b) destined for Europe was impounded by security and Uganda Wildlife Authority. Three West African nationals from Liberia and Guinea Bissau were arrested in connection with the smuggled stuff.
The trio; Moazu Kromah, the suspected ring leader from Liberia, Bangal Kromah and Mohamed Kromah from Guinea Bissau were found busy packing and labeling their cache in a hideout residential building in Najjanakumbi, a Kampala suburb along the Kampala –Entebbe highway.
The three, who are yet to appear in court, the Investigator has established, were transferred from the Central Police Station (CPS) in Kampala where they had been detained for over a week to the dreaded Flying Squad and Counter Terrorism tactical base in Nalufeenya, Jinja for further interrogation.
In an interface with the suspects while still at CPS, the three intimated that they are just workers. They revealed to The Investigator how they work for ‘big’ shots in government including ‘top security officers’ and threatened to spill the beans. “We shall soon expose these shots,” they promised.
Now we have learnt from sources close to the interrogation in Nalufenya that the smuggling of the ivory has been an ongoing thing right through the nose of security and sniffer dogs in Entebbe International Airport. The suspects, we are told confessed of how they use tactics such as painting the wooden boxes laden with Ivory and stash in marble to confuse the sniffer dogs.
Harshly though, are revelations coming in of how the smart sharks connive with fishy ENHAS staff who give them clearance vide ENHAS cargo stickers to avoid any unnecessary security checks. Indeed some boxes laded with the impounded ivory last week had ENHAS stickers clearly labeled ‘CLEARED.’ Its hair raising how ENHAS stickers got their way into a hideout criminal gang ivory packaging building in Najjanakumbi.
Apart from ENHAS, DAS Handling Limited and Air Uganda Handling Services (AUHS) are other companies contracted to offer ground handling services in Entebbe. ENHAS is still the biggest handler with a contract to handle 19 passenger and cargo airlines.
ENHAS that was formed in 1996 by Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa, was in 2006, awarded a contract to service United Nations flights at 10 airports in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other additional 10 airports in South Sudan. When contacted, Kutesa, who made it clear while serving as President of United Nations General Assembly that he had suspended his interests in all the businesses that he owned, including his shareholding in ENHAS, referred us to his managers.
ENHAS CEO responds
It took The Investigator persistence and great patience to get our calls to the Entebbe Handling Services limited Boss Phillipe Lacroix answered. For a week the Belgian national kept dodging saying… ‘I am busy, call tomorrow.’ Finally after tenacious calls, he said thus; “We (ENHAS) can’t rule out foul play amongst our staff. We have over 800 staff members. It becomes very hard to trace what each of them is doing. But I am not in charge, please talk to Andrew my cargo manager.”
Though Phillipe promised to give us the manager’s telephone numbers he didn’t. Even persistent reminders didn’t help, forcing him to finally switch off his phones. We didn’t relent, we sought the cargo managers, whom we learnt was a one Andrew Ndugutse. But inside ENHAS, there are mixed reactions regarding our investigations.
Our task was to ascertain if the ENHAS stickers found amongst labeled boxes containing smuggled ivory destined to Europe were forged or genuine ones. Several staff that we talked to in confidence revealed to us how the trade has been on for some time. The trade, we learnt had helped some ‘fishy’ staff amass huge wealth with scores of properties within and outside Entebbe.
Our efforts to get a true picture from Andrew Ndugutse regarding the ENHAS stickers didn’t yield positive answers. The Investigator learnt that of late Ndugutse has been facing a series of issues prompting his suspension. “He was recently grilled and roasted by the top directors to answer for his mess in the cargo department. A lot for rot was discovered,” said one staff as we sought for a comment from the elusive Manager.
We later learnt that he was in fact holed up in his Garuga posh residence to pave way for investigations that we have established are also linked to the couple of missing clearance ENHAS cargo stickers. His deputy Chris Pachu whom we learnt was positioned to act in his capacity was reticent too.
We are yet to establish from the serial numbers of the stickers that we obtained from the impounded ivory boxes if they match with the genuine ones. This however is a daunting task given the lack of cooperation between the ENHAS top management, but perhaps with our security taking a further keen interest, the truth of the matter will finally come to rest.
(Story adopted from the www.investigatornews.com)
