Entebbe Magistrate court through NRCN Legal Department has sentenced five Vietnamese nationals for a jail term of 11years each or 35 million Ugandan shillings each on three counts over attempted smuggling of ivory and unlawful possession of protected species.
The suspects; Hoang Manh Hong 31, Thai Xuan Sanh 26, Nguyen Mau Manh 34, Ha Van Ba 36, and Troong Cong Dinh 29 were all residents of Bunga – Kasanga a Kampala suburb.
Hoang Manh Hoang and Thai Xuan Sanh were arrested at Entebbe International Airport on November 30, 2015 as they reportedly attempted to smuggle out two wooden boxes containing 36kgs of ivory and 3kgs of rhino horns valued at Shs637, 560,000 (approximately $187,520).
The others were arrested at their residence on December 3, 2015 at Bunga-soya, a Kampala suburb and had in their possession 9kgs of polished and unpolished ivory valued at Shs356,640,000 ( $ 104,894).
In her ruling Entebbe Chief magistrate Kaitesi Mary stated that the Vietnamese used Uganda as a conduit to smuggle illegal goods out to their country.