Police bust illegal SIM card registration racket at New Park

What the report says

Police in Kampala say three people are in custody after a joint operation uncovered an alleged illegal SIM card registration racket at New Park Wholesale Building in the city’s Central Division. The Observer reported that the suspects were accused of registering and selling Airtel, MTN and Lyca Mobile SIM cards using other people’s identity documents without permission.

According to Deputy Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire, the operation was launched after information received in late July about suspected unlawful SIM registration and duplication of identity papers. Officers recovered new SIM cards, fingerprint scanners, registration books and several national identity cards during the raid. Police also said preliminary findings suggest some of the documents may have been used to register multiple SIM cards under different names.

The suspects are also alleged to have duplicated passport documents for use in the registration process. Police have written to the National Identification and Registration Authority to verify the owners of the recovered national identity cards, and they are engaging Airtel and MTN to determine whether the suspects were authorized agents.

The case matters because SIM card registration is tied to identity verification and telecom security, and abuses can be linked to fraud or impersonation. The three suspects remain in custody as detectives try to establish the scale of the alleged operation and identify other possible participants.