URA Enforcement Team Seizes $10.2 Million Hidden in Container in Major Crackdown

The Uganda Revenue Authority has seized USD 10.2 million hidden inside a shipping container. Officials call it a clear win for Commissioner General John Musinguzi Rujoki’s push to physically check every cargo load.

For years URA trusted paperwork such as invoices to clear goods. Importers quickly learned to game the system, under-declaring items to dodge taxes. They might list 100 pieces when the container actually held 1,000.

Musinguzi kept insisting on real inspections to stop the tricks. That approach is finally delivering results.

A 30-year-old customs officer spotted the cash during an ordinary verification. The container had been declared as personal belongings belonging to a Ugandan who had just returned from Turkey. Inside four ordinary boxes the officer found stacks of paper money.

“I opened the first box and saw kitchenware,” she said. “Then I opened the next one and there was cash everywhere.”

The clearing agent tried to talk her out of reporting it. He told her this was her chance to get rich. She refused and took the matter straight to her bosses.

Her bosses later honoured her at a ceremony inside the Commissioner General’s boardroom. Musinguzi called her actions heroic and praised her honesty.

“Your firm resolve to uphold integrity despite pressure not to declare the money reflects a high standard of accountability that the institution embodies,” he wrote in a commendation letter.

He told the gathering this was exactly the kind of integrity he had been calling for. “This is the integrity I am talking about. We can do it,” he said, thanking the officer and her team.

URA Assistant Commissioner for Public and Corporate Affairs Robert Kalumba said the person linked to the hidden cash is now in custody.

“We handed the suspect over to security, and he is undergoing a set of inquiries,” Kalumba explained.

He described the officer as someone who truly lives URA’s values of integrity, patriotism, and professionalism.