A Police operation in Gicumbi District on Tuesday intercepted a vehicle loaded with contrabands and smuggled bales of clothes.

The Northern region Police spokesperson Chief Inspector of Police (CIP), Hamdun Twizeyimana, said that a Ugandan registered UAS 646U Toyota Carina type was intercepted at about 12:30 amalong the Gatuna-Kigali highway.

"Police in Gicumbi had received information earlier that the same vehicle was carrying illegal merchandise, and a checkpoint was mounted in Kabuga Village of Cyuru Cell, Rukomo Sector,” CIP Twizeyimana said.

"However, the driver tried to swerve off the main road towards a feeder road after noticing the Police roadblock, they were pursued, the driver and another person on board abandoned the vehicle and runaway,” he added.

"The vehicle was carrying ten boxes of Kick waragi (illicit gin packed in banned plastic bags) jerrycans of kanyanga (Crude Gin) and five bales of secondhand clothes,” the spokesperson said.

Gicumbi and Burera district are mapped as major transit routes for drug traffickers in the Northern Province. As a result, residents have since strengthened community policing efforts through establishment of an anti-drugs club in each of the sectors to increase awareness and support intensified Police operations to arrest dealers.

Meanwhile, the seizure of the smuggled clothes follows other 222 bales of clothes impounded last month in Burera, Nyagatare and Karongi districts.

Under the East African Community Management Act article 199, seized smuggled goods are auctioned, while article 369 of the Rwandan Penal Code provides a penalty equal to the evaded tax. A driver of the vehicle intercepted with smuggled goods is also handed a fine of $5, 000.

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