How a Toyota Prado stolen at Busega was traced to Congo

When Samuel Lukanga, a 54- year-old traditional doctor in Busega, Kampala, was called by his driver, John Mutumba at about midnight, his heart skipped a beat. Instinct told him the call bore bad news. Had he been involved in an accident? Had he been arrested for one reason or another? Why did he not simply drive home as he usually does, hoot at the gate, enter and park the car in the driveway? When he answered the phone, he had a rather agitated voice on the line. The driver confirmed his worst fears, beyond what he had imagined in that split seconds when the phone rang and when he answered. His vehicle had been car-jacked! It all seemed so unreal! For Mutumba, his journey from Kampala city at about 11pm to Busega – the home of his boss where the car was usually parked for the night – on January 28, 2014, was not any different from the usual journey he had undertaken almost every day for the last many years at different times of the day.

How he was robbed

He was enjoying the fast flow of traffic with a cool breeze sweeping through the half-open window. He looked forward to a much needed rest at home after a long day behind the wheel. As he approached the Busega roundabout and slowed down, a man jumped onto the road frantically stopping him. He instinctively pressed the break to avoid hitting the man only to see other men, armed on both side of the road pointing guns at him. He stopped. Mutumba was pulled out of the car and the gunmen (he is not sure how many they were) sped off. Thus within minutes, the green/grey Toyota Land Cruiser Prado registration number UAM 476G valued at Shs37 million disappeared into thin air. That same night, Lukanga reported the robbery to police and a message was transmitted to the whole country to have all patrol police officers on alert for the vehicle. To Mr Lukanga, this was mere procedure that had to be followed but he had no hope that it would bring back his vehicle. All he wanted was to protect himself in case the vehicle was used to commit a crime. The file was transferred to the police’s Flying Squad (a unit that handles aggravated robbery and murder).

According to the Flying Squad commandant, Mr Herman Owomugisha, the squad continued handling the investigations undercover but received intelligence information about a week later that the vehicle had been taken to Aruu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through West Nile.

“The vehicle had been given to a Congolese car dealer who later took it to Bunia with a changed number plate. We collaborated with the Congolese police to recover the car,” Mr Owomugisha says. The car was handed to Uganda police on March 14, 2014.

How police got to the vehicle

Immediately after the vehicle was stolen, the Flying Squad went to the police database and tried to establish any of the known car robbers who could have any ties with the victim or his family. The detectives were basing on their experience in cracking other such cases where the robber tends to be close to its prey.

A one Lwere was then arrested and interrogated. During the two day long interrogations, he broke down and confessed to the theft of another car but denied any links to the Prado in question. Asan Kasingye, the director of Interpol Uganda, in January revealed that theft of cars in Kampala was masterminded by a gang operating around Arua Park in downtown Kampala and neighboring garages. Therefore, the car thieves   tend to know each other personally and on operation basis. So Lwere is said to have given police the name of the individual he suspected to have masterminded the robbery in Busega. A source who was part of the operation told the Sunday Monitor that police at that point only had to track down the movement of the suspect (name withheld since he is yet to be arrested). The movements then led police to his association in Congo who true to the intelligence had the vehicle. Police tipped off their Congolese counterparts who used the engine and chassis number to verify the true identity of the vehicle which now had a Congolese number plate 3522AA25.

How the robbers beat police deployment

With police constantly on the lookout for stolen vehicles, carjackers still somehow manage to get away with their theft. While some of the cars are transported whole across the border, some thieves disassemble the vehicles before transporting them in a bid to avoid being caught since police monitors highways whenever a case of carjacking is reported. Most of these cars end up being sold in DR Congo, South Sudan and Tanzania.

Mr Owomugisha says the robbers tend to transport the vehicles after about six to eight hours of stealing them despite a countrywide alert to police to look out for the car. It appears the robbers usually have inside intelligence and are aware when police are on super alert. Then the cars will be kept for about two weeks in Kampala at one of the many garages, especially those with a lot of scrap metal. The motor vehicle is arranged in between scrap to hide it away from the public and police.

Others find a way of changing the number plate and avoid any negotiations with traffic officers when stopped lest they find out that the number plate is not for the car. The used number plate could be for a car that has been cut into scrap or that which is undergoing repair in the garage. At the border, the robbers use panya routes due to the porous nature of our borders to avoid paying taxes and being spotted. They then connect with their contacts that are usually aware of the coming “good”. The Flying Squad boss says the syndicate has infiltrated the Registrar of Motor Vehicles offices, where the thieves obtain blank logbooks that are used when smuggling stolen vehicles across the border.

Disabling tracking devise

The recent invention of motor vehicle tracking device has not helped to reduce the vice as the car thieves are said to hire trained “experts” who are paid handsomely to find and disable the tracking device before the car is disposed of. If the “experts” find a tracking device on a vehicle, the dismantling charges are passed on to the buyer. Police is yet to acquire GPS satellite technology and VHF technology which have over the last few years been used by motor vehicle recovery firms.

Most targeted vehicles

The police crime report of 2012 shows that the most stolen cars in the country are Toyota with 131 cars stolen followed by Nissan (15) and Isuzu (14). Most of the vehicles targeted are car hire/self-drive vehicles, taxis and vehicles which are usually driven by paid drivers, not the owners. Self-drive vehicles and taxis are mostly reported missing about three to four days after they have been stolen, according to police records.

As a result, by the time when the theft or robbery is reported, the cars have already been smuggled into a neighboring country or been disassembled. The thugs also target these vehicles due to the nature of their operation– the first suspect will always be the person driving since they are rarely driven by their respective owners. While police questions and interrogates their first suspect, the robbers buy time to smuggle the vehicle or even hide it. The stolen vehicle market is determined by the type of vehicles that are on demand and currently, Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, Toyota Hilux Double Cabin and Toyota Corona Premio are the most demanded.

Operation Usalaama

Uganda is also a transit route for international stolen vehicles basing on a 2013 July investigations carried out by Interpol in conjunction with the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (EAPCCO) and the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO). The Usalama Operation reports indicate that one car thief was prosecuted in Mukono District in 2012 and convicted but court fined him only Shs100,000 before releasing him. The other challenge is that DRC and South Sudan don’t have the Interpol automated car system to track stolen vehicles. Other countries in the region usually cooperate to track down stolen vehicles using such a system. Vehicle robbery was reported to be on the increase last year.

Legally speaking

Robbery is an offence under the penal code act section 285 which states that any person who steals anything and at or immediately before or immediately after the time of stealing it uses or threatens to use actual violence to any person or property in order to obtain or retain the thing stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to its being stolen or retained commits the felony termed robbery.

Under section 286(2) of the penal code act where a person uses or threatens to use a deadly weapon immediately before or immediately after stealing or causes death during the process of stealing, he shall on conviction be sentenced to death.

Steps to be taken

1.      Report the matter to the nearest police station immediately after you have been robbed giving details of the property that has been robbed and record your statement.

2.      Assist the police in investigation in so far as it’s possible to bring the perpetrators to book.

This article is courtesy of The Daily Monitor and edited by Advocate Ricky Mudali