By Annet Nantongo
The activity at the Entebbe terminal was like a movie scene as passengers were repeatedly breaking bags on the conveyor belts and sticking their cargo into “hand carry luggage” and other nether regions. Some buried them deep in suitcases, mingled with personal belongings that would later be disguised as ordinary baggage.
Other smugglers conspired with airport trolley pushers and cleaners hoping to slide their merchandise past customs in unnoticeable travel bags. Then there was the “sitya danger” ilk that threw caution to the wind and attempted to dash past the scanner like they had nothing on the Fast and Furious cast.
Armed with this intelligence, enforcement officers searched high and low and never gave up on countering the tricks of such conniving traders. Some traders even applied the usual age-old, desperate trick of strapping phones directly onto their bodies, hoping Customs was none the wiser.
Yet, one by one, these attempts crumbled under the vigilance of our Enforcement team.
In total, 781 pieces of smartphones and 108 pieces of button phones estimated to be worth USD 55,000, were seized in the operations; offense management is underway
Some of the featuring brands included 258 pieces of assorted smartphones (Redmi, Oppo, Sony Xperia, Sharp Aquos; 95 pieces of assorted refurbished and used iPhones; 287 pieces of Samsung Galaxy Phones (both new and used); 10 pieces of used Google Pixel 7; 5 pieces of New Tecno Spark 20 Pro; 112 pieces of Infinix phones, 15pcs of Huawei Smart Phones; and 108pcs of Button Phones.
Mobile phones rank the highest smuggled item at Entebbe airport passenger terminal. The increased interceptions at the airport have been enhanced by employing various compliance enforcement techniques such as profiling the passengers, using intelligence networks, CCTV cameras, and Non-intrusive inspection scanners as compared to other porous borders.