Ugandan custom officers arrest ‘baby’ full of contraband

Ugandan customs officers have arrested and detained a smuggler passing off a dull baby full of banned cosmetics as a child.

According to Uganda customs commissioner, Dicksons Kateshumbwa in a tweet, wrote: “The “baby” was intercepted aboard a bus at the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Some smugglers never cease to amuse,” Kateshumbwa added.

More than dozen of banned skin-lightening products get into Uganda every year, mostly through open points along the border with DR Congo.

The cosmetics rarely come in bulk deliveries. The carriers earn about $1 per trip, bring them across the border by box or by sack, according to BBC reports.

They often come concealed in sacks of green bananas, and even in plastic jerry cans with false bottoms that are cut and sewn up.

Kateshumbwa was clearly delighted with the ingenuity of this latest smuggling attempt at the Mpondwe border post as he tweeted three photos of baby “dummy” stuffed with illegal cosmetics.

Most of the smuggled cosmetics tend to be skin-lightening creams that are not allowed in Uganda since 2016 because they contain mercury and hydroquinone, which some studies have linked to damaging health side-effects.