Immigration officials along the Busia border on Wednesday intercepted a Congolese man suspected of being involved in fake gold scamming.
The officials were following a stop order issued in September 2023, when a complaint was lodged at the Operations Support Unit offices in Nairobi.
The 35-year-old is currently holed in interrogations with detectives aimed at getting enough information to arrest his accomplices.
Confirming his arrest, the DCI said the man came to the radar of law enforcement in 2023 when he allegedly engineered a fraudulent scheme that caused a Ghanaian merchant USD 100,000 (Sh13,100,000)
The merchant is said to have met with the suspect at a hotel in Ghana over lunch hour when the latter introduced himself tos Osuman from Nigeria.
He said he was in Ghana for business but his residence and business addresses were in Uganda.
In the course of their interaction, the suspect would learn that the merchant was interested in the purchase and sale of gold and promised to introduce him to dealers in Uganda whereafter he could sell the gold in Dubai.
The merchant then flew to Uganda on August 1, 2023, where the Congolese man introduced him to the alleged dealers – brothers only identified as Ben and Hassan.
It is said that in the next few weeks, the merchant would spend USD 71,300 (Sh10.7 million) in the name of documentation of 10kg of gold, non-criminality certification, melting and taxation.
It was allegedly agreed that payment for the gold at USD 33,000 per kg was to be made upon delivery to Dubai.
Confident that he was done with all the logistical procedures, the merchant boarded a UAE-bound flight on August 9, ahead of his cargo.
He would days later book a flight back to Uganda on August 13, to check his gold, only to be told that it was being held at customs offices in Kenya where it had been erroneously flown through.
The following day, detectives said, the merchant boarded a flight to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) where he met the suspect’s accomplices only identified as Daniel and Lucy.
They allegedly fleeced him close to USD 30,000 (over Sh4.3 million) in tax and clearance of non-existing gold between August 14, and September 1, 2023.
They then put him on a flight back to Dubai, on the pretext that they were having a flight attendant secure his safe containing gold.
The DCI OSU team would only learn of the alleged fraud when drama characterized by screams occurred during take-off, forcing the merchant to be ejected from the flight and his complaint recorded.
The Operations Support Unit then issued the aforementioned order, which saw the suspect’s interception on Wednesday.
