Gangs steal high-value British vehicles to order and ship them as far as Uganda, with the help of corrupt officials. Zoe Flood in Nairobi investigates a sophisticated operation


The black Audi Q7 vanished when heavy snow covered Britain’s South-east, shortly before Christmas in 2010. Four-and-a-half years later it appeared again, in a parking lot in the outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

In a small village just outside Maidstone in Kent, Martin McSwiney, his wife and their four children were in their beds when noises woke the couple almost five years ago. “There was very bad snow and my driveway is quite steep, so one of the cars was struggling to get down it,” Mr McSwiney remembered. “I ran downstairs to find the front door open.”

Thieves had broken into the McSwineys’ home, stolen keys to the two family cars and driven off with both of them. An Audi A6 was recovered that night, but the second – the Audi Q7 – had gone. When British police found the Q7 while on the trail of a stolen Lexus in Kampala, officers also found Range Rovers, BMWs, Mercedes and even a Nissan Micra – all stolen from Britain.

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