Police last week, with help from the Natural Resource Conservation Network (NRCN) and Uganda Wildlife Authority nabbed red handed Major Allen Rutagira and Cpl Collins Kamugisha; both Uganda Peoples Defense Forces staff while selling 21.5kgs of pure elephant ivory.
These were arrested on Thursday 24th March at Hotel Africana in Kampala, after being tracked for weeks by police and the conservationists.
The arrested senior officers of the UPDF are attached to Entebbe International Airport security, raising suspicions that they might have obtained the contraband from the Airport stores.
The army attire found with the suspects
Cpl Kamugisha`s confession also led to the arrest of one George Otika an accountant at the airport, Able Bamwonjobora a State House driver and Simon Mbonye a miner and business man in Kampala.
These according to NRCN spokesperson Laban Muhindo, were waiting for the money from the transaction and were arrested at a petrol station in Kampala.
The truck that the suspects were using to move the contraband
Mbonye told police that the contraband belonged to one Alex Sande a businessman who was also arrested later on the same day
The four civilian suspects are detained at Central Police Station waiting to appear in the courts of law as the hunt for their counterparts intensifies.
The soldiers were detained at SIU in Kireka but later transferred to Nalufenya Prison in Jinja.
This comes only weeks after another UPDF officer was arrested in ivory trafficking in Moroto district.