A police swoop has disbanded groups of gangsters behind the ongoing robberies, murders, break-ins and rapes in and around Kampala and Metropolitan Areas. According to Police, they have arrested several leaders of these gangs who were forced to reveal facts around their operations.
Police who were tickled by an upsurge in these crimes in Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono and other districts as Christmas and end-of-year period draws near, swung into action and mounted operations in which a number of the criminal squad leaders were arrested.
According to police sources, the gangsters are so organized that their numbers amounting to well over fifty, have surveillance teams that scout around to establish the most healthy areas for the next operation, and hit teams then attack with a prior knowledge of some facts on the ground.
On their arrest following information from the Directorate of Crime Intelligence, the gang leaders revealed their operational bases, tactics and how they go about their work. They have surveillance teams based in Wabigalo, Katuba, Kibuli and Go-down zones in Makindye division and, according to their own information, they rape, kill and murder their victims using hammers, iron bars, concrete pavers, and knives.
They have prior arranged motor cycles which act as their get-away vehicles under the command of one James Kasujja alias ‘Ghost Rider’ owing to his rare riding antiques.
Their major targets include mobile money shop owners, people taking money to banks or those who have just withdrawn cash, travellers especially ladies with hand bags and mobile phones in their hands, and others that they simply pounce on, beat up and flush everything out of their pockets and rush away with the loot.
They also disclosed that they sometimes target residences into which they break especially at night and take household property; the gangsters said their other attractive targets include foreigners, university students and other vulnerable travellers.
Among commanders flushed out of their hiding places which also serve as launch pads for their criminal operations were James Odera alias ’Kasodde Demon’, and Shaban Wadejja alias ‘DPC Shaban’. The two who are the supreme leaders of the gangsters, together with Kasujja admitted they were behind the 9th November attack on a mobile money shop owner along Salaama Road who was left with deep machete wounds before losing his money to the thieves.
Kabalagala police has opened up criminal cases against them under files CRB/350/2024, CRB 1242/2024, CRB 1022/2023, CRB 586/2024, CRB 1720/2023, CRB 308/2024 and CRB 111/2023 with charges ranging from robbery, rape and murder. Police investigators also compile a list for rich people in areas including Ndejje, Kisenyi, Kibuli, Kawempe-Mbogo, Mbuya, Kibbulooka, Kikubamutwe, Nansana, and Nabisaalu zone, who buy stolen items from these youths.
It is these rich people who help the criminals get police bonds and court bails once arrested or arraigned in courts.
Another Kyebando-based group is headed by Imran Kakeeto, a chapatti seller and boda boda cyclist who liaises with fellow cyclists including Manishiimwe 23, riding motorcycle registration number UFX 291V, Aaron Nyweza riding motorcycle number UGG 375G, Mike Muyingo, 24, riding motorcycle number UFW 834Z, Godfrey Agaba, 18, riding motorcycle number UFC 613N, and one only identified as John Mutebi.
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This particular group, because of availability of motor cycles to swiftly get them away from scenes of crime, travel as far away as Kabulengwa in Wakiso, Buloba, Mityana and Bukuya-Kassanda. It is said that on November 11, 2024, they gravely cut with machetes an unnamed mobile money businessman in Bukuya, and rode away with his money. Two motorbikes registration number UGG 375G and UFC 63N have since been impounded by police.
Their tactics to pedestrians include pouncing on them from behind, chocking them while holding their hands tightly, and others flush out whatever they (victims) have with them. In Mukono, they normally operate along Namugongo-Ssonde road in Goma Division, Mukono-Katosi Road, Nassuuti along Kayunga Road and Kigunga on the main Kampala-Jinja highway.
Police say the CCTV cameras have been boosted with re-enforcement of patrol teams in plain clothes, with a view to flushing them out by Christmas time.
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