KAMPALA: Ugandan police have said they are investigating reports that nearly $4m (£2.7m) worth of cocaine seized by customs officers at the country’s main airport had disappeared from secure stores.
The national police chief, Kale Kayihura, had set up “a task team to conduct an audit into the control and accountability of drug exhibits at the aviation police headquarters,” a police spokesman, Fred Enanga, said.
“The task team is in its advanced stages of the enquiry,” Enanga added, saying it was up to them to confirm if the drugs seized from smugglers between 2012 and 2014 had since been stolen.
The New Vision newspaper said about 80kg of cocaine – worth about $4m at street prices – had reportedly gone missing from the stores of aviation police at Entebbe airport.
The state-owned newspaper, which quoted unnamed sources, said: “Wheat and cassava flour and other substances were substituted for cocaine. The racket came to light after detectives took 17 separate samples from the stores for testing at the government analytical laboratory last year,” the newspaper added.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports.
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