Eight arrested for illegal logging in Nhamatanda, Mozambique

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Eight arrested for illegal logging in Nhamatanda, Mozambique

7:30 CAT | 27 Sep 2016

In File Club of Mozambique

The Mozambican police have arrested eight people suspected of illegal timber operations in Nhamatanda district, in the central province of Sofala, according to a report on the independent television station STV.

The eight suspects claim they were merely carrying out the instructions given by their employer, and they did not know that the wood in question was illegal.

“I’m a driver”, said one of them. “My employer gave me orders to go there and pick up the logs. He explained the area to me, and said there would be somebody waiting for me on the road to take me to the pick-up site. When we reached there, I didn’t mistrust anything, and I took the timber”.

“When I reached the crossroads I ran into a police brigade and the men from the environment”, the driver continued. “They fined me because I didn’t have any documents, and I was held there. I rang up my employer, but he didn’t answer”.

According to the police, efforts are now under way to locate the owner of the wood and identify all those involved. In all, the police seized three trucks in Nhamatanda, laden with 250 logs.

The arrests and the seizure of the timber result from joint work between agents of the recently created police department for the protection of natural resources and the environment and wardens from the Sofala provincial forestry and wild life services.

With these arrests the number of people detained in connection with illegal logging in Sofala has risen to 12 in the past six months, and 12 trucks used to transport the logs have been seized.

Source: AIM