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Kampala — Ugandan police said on Monday they were investigating reports that cocaine worth nearly $4m seized by customs officers at its main airport had disappeared from secure stores.

National police chief Kale Kayihura has set up “a task team to conduct an audit into the control and accountability of drug exhibits at the aviation police headquarters,” said police spokesperson Fred Enanga.

“The task team is in its advanced stages of the enquiry,” saying it was up to them to confirm if the drugs seized from smugglers between 2012 and 2014 had since been stolen.

The New Vision newspaper said about 80kg of cocaine — worth some $4m at street prices — reportedly had gone missing from the stores of aviation police at Entebbe international airport.

The state-owned newspaper, which quoted unnamed souces, said, “wheat and cassava flour and other substances were substituted for cocaine.

“The racket came to light after detectives took 17 separate samples from the stores for testing at the government analytical laboratory last year,” the newspaper reported. — AFP