Three arrested in Busia for smuggling fake currency notes

Busia, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Customs officials at the Busia border town arrested three people allegedly smuggling counterfeit notes into Uganda.

The Uganda Revenue Authority seized the counterfeit money in 5,000 and 10,000-shilling denomination notes, amounting to 40.8 Million Shillings as they were being loaded onto a Modern Coast Bus Registration number KDA 155X.

“The Ugandan currency notes had been stacked in a suspicious package that had been declared but later manually crossed out,” says the statement from Uganda Revenue Authority, URA.

This triggered suspicion from officers who immediately opened the package to find 10,000 and 5000 new notes carefully stashed.

According to the statement, the load was thought to be a case of failure to declare but upon verification, it turned out to be counterfeit money amounting to 40,845,000 shillings.

“From face value, we were under the impression that the offense was a failure to declare cash, but while counting, the notes looked a little odd. This is when we sought assistance from a bank whose hi-tech machine confirmed that the money was fake.” A Customs Officer said.

Three suspects have since been arrested and the bus impounded.

The law on prohibited goods provides for a fine of 50 percent of the value of items and in the case of counterfeit notes, the penalty is imprisonment for the suspect.

Similarly, Section 199 of the East African Community Customs Management Act sets a fine of not more than 5,000 dollars (about 18.5 million shillings) for such means of transportation, in this case, the Modern Coast bus.

#URAEnforcementAlert🌏
40 MLLION SHILLINGS OF COUNTERFEIT MONEY SEIZED IN BUSIA
Customs officials from Uganda Revenue Authority have seized counterfeit money which was being smuggled into the Country via a Modern Coast bus Registration number KDA 155X./1

A #Customs101 thread! pic.twitter.com/hu5G5J8QTE

— Uganda Revenue Authority (@URAuganda) March 17, 2023

*****

URN