The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has arrested three Somali nationals for failure to disclose large sums of money in transit.
The three were detained at the Oraba border as they attempted to cross into Uganda from South Sudan.
According to authorities, the suspects are identified as Hassan Hussein, Guhad Ismael and Abdirahman Farah.
According to Philip David Ofubo, a customs officer at URA, the arrest of these suspects followed intelligence reports of a group of Somalis often crossing the border with large sums of money.
“Aware of the requirement of declaration to customs of large sums of money in transit and conscious of the security risk of such unlawful conveyance of monies pose- such as funding subversive and terrorist activities, they swung into action and laid a trap that was successful,’’ he stated.
Hassan Hussein was found in possession of UGX 70,162,000/=, Guhad Ismael UGX 43,000,000/= and Abdirahman Farah UGX 9,104,000/=, USD 196 and SSP 23,040.
Immigration and the Financial Intelligence Authority are investigating the three suspects.
The Anti Money Laundering Act 2013 created a law for cross border movements of currency and negotiable bearer instruments which calls on persons with money exceeding 1,500 currency points (UGX 30,000,000) to notify URA which the Somalis failed to comply with.
The Act further imposes an offence for failure to report to URA conveyance of cash in and out of Uganda and a penalty of imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years or a fine not exceeding 100,000 currency points (UGX 2 billion) or both.