An arrested criminal gang member has revealed plot to harm highly prominent people in the country.
According to the gang member, their target includes ministers, Members of Parliament, Ministers and several senior government officials.
Local media reports indicate that a gang member whom we can’t reveal not to jeopardize investigations was arrested last week from Mukono district.
The member revealed that he was living an entrenched gang culture, with thousands of young men belonging to street gangs with names like “Hard Living”.
He said by the time he was arrested, the gang had profiled more than 20 prominent Ugandans who they had enlisted for blackmail, extortion, and murder.
He named identified some of the profiled targets as speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah, businessmen Patrick Bitature and Umar Mandela of City Oil, Lands and Housing Minister, Betty Amongi, Kasanda County South MP, Simeo Nsubuga, State Minister for Planning David Bahati, State Minister for Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda, Gen. Salim Saleh, Deputy Police Chief, Sabiiti Mazeeyi, Gov’t Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa, Local Government peremenet secrtary Ben Kumunanya, Director Budget (Ministry of Finance) Kenneth Mugambe, and Ministry of Labour permanent secretary, Ben Kumumnya , Deputy Attorney General, Mweisgwa Rukutana, and Igara East MP Rafael Magezi among others.
Why the above targets
According to this gang members, there are several reasons why they have embarked on this mission.
He says some of them reasons are political while others economical. Among the reasons include;
Political rivalry
He said as the country approaches 2021 polls, the stakes are high! ‘’As the result, some gang members are being hired to black mail and tarnish their opponents,’ he confessed.
“Other issues are related to job rivalry; promotions and money since most of the targeted people hold high offices.”
Murder
Other intentions of the gang are to murder. The jailed gang member said their mission is to kill. However, before they kill, they first create a primafacie case around their victims through blackmail and extortion to sway the public opinion before killing their victims.
When this is done, they strike their opponents like thunder when their already a different motive for the murder.
Some of these criminals, according to security, are facilitated by foreign forces discredit government and the NRM party.
“Most of the times they use beautiful women seductively approach their victims before the gang strikes,” the criminal confessed.
TRICKS
These thugs, according to the man, have mastered several tricks they use in luring their victims into their dens. Some of the tricks include;
Voice changer/ manipulation.
The term voice changer refers to a device which can change the tone or pitch of or add distortion to the user’s voice, or a combination and vary greatly in price and sophistication. They get the voice of their target and make it suit their mission.
Deep Fake Voice
Deep Fake video is a technique for human image synthesis based on artificial intelligence. It is used to combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network. This was one is used to manipulate their victims’ videos to suit their interests
Use of women
The use of women to lure men into being robbed has been known for a while. However, there is a new trend of women actually participating in robbery, spying, blackmail and extortion. Be careful of that charming stranger next to you.
Security recently arrested a one Alice over allegations of blackmail, spying and extortion.
Alice was arrested from Mukono district and she is currently under detention.
In here, a woman starts to send messages to the victim. Then after, they start manipulating the whatsapp messages to fit in their game plan.
Recently, we report that security was hunting gang of con-stars who have been on the run.
Prominent on the list was the couple who has been blackmailing and extorting money from prominent citizens.
According to security, Diini and Alice have been running a huge extortion racket targeting citizens using voice manipulation and Photoshop.
“They have been using free voice changer software which is capable of converting voice to suit their target. They have also been using photoshop to manipulate pictures to suit their victims,” a security sources privy with the investigations said.
The couple is said to be on the run. Diini was arrested last week while Alice has been on the run.
She was smoked out yesterday from a hotel in Mukono where she was smoked out with a man connected to deadly activities of a neighbouring country.
She was found with materials of high value related to blackmail, spying for a neighbouring country, and extortion among other things.
She was also found with a list of high profile people this gang of women has been targeting.
” These women have been trying to follow up high profile people to either blackmail or harm them,” the source said.
The other women in the racket include Aisha Namukasa, 26, of Masanafu, Grace Nakamya, Madina Nakintu, 33, a bar woman at Wandegeya, Anna Tumuhirwe and Rosette Nakayaga from Lugala were behind some of the recent taxi robberies.
The five women roamed every part of Uganda, stealing from different blackmail different people.
Their mission would sometimes extend to drinking places where they lured wealthy patrons.
The use of women as decoys is fast becoming a trend in the criminal world, and the Police is warning the public to be more careful.
The main victims are unsuspecting men, but after so many stories of these otherwise genteel creatures, men are weary, finding it hard to give lifts to even those who genuinely deserve one.
Godfrey Musana, the Deputy Director Criminal Investigations recently warned of a new extortion racket.
Musana said there has emerged an organized criminal gang comprising of women and men who have resorted to blackmailing their victims to extort money from them. He said the gang targets prominent businessmen, politicians and local celebrities.
According to Musana, potential victims of the extortion racket are set up by a group of young women and lured into hotel rooms with hidden cameras.
He said the suspects then use the video footage with threats to expose them in the media to blackmail their victims and extort huge sums of money from them.
Musana said police is already investigating some of the suspects connected to the extortion racket after they blackmailed some official from a ministry, he didn’t disclose.
According to Musana he is handling two such cases where people were lured and their pictures taken but shortly after some people turned up to demand for money or else they expose them in the media.
He said some of the suspects are witch doctors, who isolate their victims to ensure there are no potential witnesses.
He also decried cases where people have been cheated of their properties like cars, houses and land by money lenders.
He said borrowers are made to write an agreement showing that they have sold their properties at a higher value than what they actually borrowed.
Other tricks used by the gang include office set up. The woman on mission keeps coming into the office in sexy attire and starts to seductively demand for assistance from the target.
After, the husband calls accusing the senior government official of boking his wife in office and demands for money to a tune of $2m. (roughly shs7bn).
“There are others who are bought to flame big shots government, even to an extent of going to court on cooked up evidence. Others are trapped via vehicle lifts and after alleged rape and setting up children from married couples alleging that they were sired by the target big shots,” the thugs said. Recently, ISO Boss Col. Kaka Bagyenda warned that women were seriously being used in murders especially of boda boda riders around Kampala Metropolitan.
