Police have provided more details regarding the operation in which six gang members were gunned down during a foiled robbery at Stanbic Bank’s Acacia branch.
In a scene that played like an action-packed movie, security personnel gunned down six gang members who attempted to rob shs500 million from a client at Stanbic Bank Acacia Mall branch.
The Monday afternoon incident has left many hailing Police for this daring operation as it served a dose of medicine to members of a gang that has been linked to several other high profile robberies involving machete-wielding assailants attacking mostly businessmen.
In the end, the six gang members lay lifeless after being gunned down at Total Acacia Avenue, Kasasiro Stage along the Old Kira Road and near Tagore Apartments, along Kayunga Road.
Speaking on Monday, Police spokesperson, Kituuma Rusoke said the intelligence-led operation had been planned for some time after following a gang led by one Abdullaman Bakata alias Pancho and Tomusange Farouk (aka Otto), the latter having been killed in a previous incident.
“This operation was intelligence led with officers strategically deployed to counter the suspects. An undercover police officer was planted after police managed to enter deep into the gang. The spy was planted as a victim( who was to be robbed) and the gang targeted this victim and it is during that process that they were put out of action,” Rusoke said.
He said investigations have indicated that the gang had robbed over shs500 million from businessmen and other members of the public in just six months in the same manner.
The police spokesperson said the gang on June, 15, 2024 robbed shs394 million and $ 17,450( over shs64 million) from an accountant in Nakawa, shs57.4million from another victim near Case Hospital along Buganda Road who had withdrawn it from Centenary Bank on December, 9.
The gang also robbed shs11 million from a victim outside Kawempe Women Hospital on December, 10 and shs30.7 million from another businessman in Industrial Area on January, 4, 2025.
Rusoke said the gang graduate from kicking and boxing victims to using panga to threaten them before robbing the cash, adding that investigations are still ongoing to have all gang members arrested.
“The targeted suspects, part of a larger gang known for targeting individuals carrying large sums of cash, had graduated from unarmed assailants to armed robbers involving weapons like machetes,” he said.
