Some of the fake currencies intercepted at the Airport on Friday.
The State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SH-AU), together with Entebbe Police and Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) security, has on Friday conducted a joint operation at a garage in Entebbe Municipality in which they arrested three suspected fraudsters with USD 2 million in fake currency.
The law enforcement officers searched the garage where a consignment, suspected to have been smuggled from Entebbe International Airport, was being hidden.
Although the search was conducted today, Friday, the operation dates back to May.
In May 2024 and later in October, SH-ACU received a tip-off on a consignment that was suspiciously being held at the airport. Since then, SH-ACU, together with other security agencies, has been monitoring the consignment.
On December 17, 2024, the consignment was smuggled out of the airport.
The SH-ACU investigation team was tipped off and traced the same in a motor vehicle garage in Entebbe. Today, upon conducting a search, the joint investigation team discovered 40 large and medium metallic boxes containing suspected counterfeit US dollars, amounting to USD 2 million,” the unit said in a statement on Friday.
To hoodwink their would-be targets, the fraudsters added soil in the boxes to exaggerate their weight.
Besides the fake currency, the team also recovered several bulky, well-wrapped boxes, falsely appearing to contain goods in transit, yet they had useless items, including empty crates of soda and beer.
“So far, three suspects have been arrested, while efforts to apprehend others are ongoing,” SH-ACU said.