By Our Reporter
URA impounded a Mercedes Benz ML 350 on Sunday 11th May as it attempted to smuggle over 800 button phones in Iganga. While the rest of the world was celebrating mothers, the car owner was busy trashing the image of the Mercedes Benz.
Generally, a Mercedes Benz is considered a classy car and its prestigious attachment is probably the reason why this smuggler tried to carry their loot in it hoping they wouldn’t be caught.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. The vehicle was singled out after a tip-off from credible sources. After laying night-long ambushes targeting several consignments, the Iganga enforcement team shifted to Mayuge along Namayingo road where a chase ensued in pursuit of the vehicle.
Given the high performance of the Benz, URA nearly failed to keep up with the chase of the smuggler and applied other tactics of netting the illegal cargo.
“The car has been on our radar and at around 6:00am on Sunday morning, after a failed chase , we devised an abrupt attack on the target. We lay-low and pretended not to follow him anymore and he landed into a set trap ahead,” narrated Aidan Ssekatawa, an enforcement officer in Iganga.
Although the driver attempted to escape from the team, he was tamed and the vehicle was redirected to the Iganga office station. The verification exercise revealed 860 ITEL phones categorised as 160 pieces of Itel5626 dual sim, 300 pieces of Itel5606 dual sim, 160 pieces OF Itel5032A all dual sim, and 240 pieces of Itel2160N of 3-sim.
Currently, offence management and further investigations are underway. However, once the culprits are found guilty, their car which was used in smuggling will be liable to a fine not exceeding USD 5,000 as stipulated in the East African Community Customs Management Act (EACCMA).
In the Customs valuation guides, mobile phones pay import duty of 10%, VAT of 18%, WHT of 6% and Infrastructural levy of 1.5% and smuggling them contravenes section 202 where penalty is 50% of the value.
