Charles Twine
ASP Charles Twine- CID PRO
Nine Chinese nationals and a Ugandan are in the custody of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) in another suspected telecom fraud.
Police picked up the suspects following a raid on their apartment on plot 85 Luthuli Avenue in Bugolobi, a Kampala city suburb over the weekend following intelligence reports about their suspicious activities.
A senior police detective who participated in the operation intimated that they found the suspects with over 500 Cell phones with Sim-cards registered in Ugandan names.
“We suspect they were also in preparation to create a control room to connect these phones they usually connect to an online platform called We-chat, a Chinese platform that is being used in sending messages and financial transactions,” the source said.
Charles Twine, the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) spokesperson confirmed the arrest, saying the Chinese suspects include six men and three women. He says that the suspects are yet to record statements owing to the challenge of language.
“The challenge we currently have is the language barrier. The Chinese do not speak English but we are still looking for an interpreter. So that we can have, their statements recorded to help our investigation in this matter,” Twine said.
He explains that currently the police and cyber investigations experts are still trying to find out the names of the Ugandans and how the suspects acquired them to register the sim cards.
Last year, police arrested 38 Chinese nationals with 2000 phones all connected with Ugandan sim cards. Investigations revealed that they were being used in different financial crimes. These were declared undesirable and deported.
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They could be hackers or cyber criminals.