Woman caught with 40 phones strapped on her hips, bosom

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has nabbed a female traveller from Dubai with 40 smartphones strapped around her hips and bosom. The unnamed woman had reportedly concealed the phones beneath several layers of clothing.

Following intelligence reports and informers in Dubai that passengers have devised new creative and sophisticated ways of concealing phones to avoid enforcement & non-intrusive inspection (NII) scanner detection, URA launched an operation dubbed Kwata Essimu.

It was noted that some passengers were now switching from Uganda Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines to Fly Dubai, hoping to catch officers unawares and scrutiny has now been intensified on all inbound flights through applying surveillance of the belts, NII cargo scanners, meticulous inspection of luggage, observation and interview of travellers.

The enforcement team has further uncovered another notable concealment in the form of a false bottom in a box where a review of a scanner image showed that there was a meticulously crafted shroud of dark blue at the bottom of the box that contained a stash of 44 pieces of smartphones.

“These results are fruits of the collaborative teamwork from all the teams that support operations at the airport. This has yielded into Shs 1.7 billion recovery in taxes in the last 28 days, the highest ever collected in one month," noted Simon Esunget, acting manager customs at Entebbe International Airport.

More ingenious hiding spots were unearthed where phones disguised as everyday items like perfume boxes, flowers, shoes, embedded within clothing, motor vehicle spares and even cleverly concealed within electronic devices like car radios.

In the last one month of the Kwata Essimu operation, URA has recovered a staggering 506 phones from various passengers arriving from Dubai. Verification revealed 44 pieces of New Infinix Hot 301; 36 pieces of Oppo smartphones; 20 pieces of refurbished Google Pixel 7 Pro; 8 pieces of used Aquos Shg03 phones; 34 pieces of used Samsung Galaxy Note phones (9, 10,10+,8); 25 pieces of Samsung Galaxy A54; and 18 pieces of used Samsung Galaxy Note 8 were recorded.

Another set of phones recovered included 8 pieces of used iPhones, 76 pieces of Sony Xperia; 124 pieces of assorted refurbished Samsung Galaxy Phones (S8/S9/S9+/S10/S10+); 8 pieces of New Note 30 Pro; 15 pieces of used Aquos Shg03 Sense 1; 50 pieces of refurbished Aquos Shg03; and 40 pieces of refurbished Vivo Ultra 24 smartphones.

In accordance with Sections 200 and 203 of the East African Community Customs Management Act, an importer found to be in the act of concealing goods faces up to five years in prison or a fine equal to half of the dutiable worth of the items in question.

“I briefed the airport security committee of our operations and enlisted their support, especially in sharing information. At a strategic level, we will continue efforts to enrol all airlines on the passenger data platform, which once implemented 100%, will ease targeting,” added Esunget.

URA’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Bbossa, urged clients to comply with procedures that have been created to facilitate trade. He added URA is continuously evolving in technology and investing in automation of its processes to curb such vices in order to create a levelled marketplace for Ugandans