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No. 00294 |
November 1 - 7, 2003 |
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Police nab ‘alien’ racketeersby Staff Writer Sirens blared in full blast last Tuesday, when a team of Police officers sealed off a section of the main Sokoine road to net in some criminal suspects. The effort resulted into the arrest of four people, residents of Mwanza city, who were in town allegedly on a massive crime mission. Regional Police Commander (RPC), James Kombe named the four suspects as Hussein Kibiru (41) of Mabatini area of Mwanza, Juma Lukamoja (42), Albert Mangu Kinyawange (42) and Kija Kiseria (41), all residents of Nyakato, Mwanza. According to Police reports, the group was actually a band of notorious con men who had just invaded the town ready to launch a new version of rackets. The suspects had with them 196 bank notes all of which counterfeits US Dollars 100 bills valued at US Dollars 19,600 equivalent to Tsh.20.4 million. The counterfeit money is reported to be the product of a Mwanza - based Mint, which also allegedly supplies fake currencies to neighbouring countries. The suspects, it is believed , were planning to make Arusha their green pastures after exhausting their Mwanza play grounds. The suspects also had 2,534.4 grams of fake gold, whose value is yet to be known. They also had with them pure gold amounting to 10,256.6 grams, believed to have been used to fool gullible customers into buying the fake gold. "They show you the genuine gold but sell you fake ones!" said the Police Commander. It is still not known, whether the four suspects had already conducted some "business" here, but they all had been staying at Hotel A.M. in the town centre. The Regional Crimes Officer was alerted of their presence in town and moved in to lay the trap.
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October 30, 2003. Webmaster: WDJMallya |
