Contraband timber seized in Dondo, Mozambique

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Contraband timber seized in Dondo, Mozambique

7:43 CAT | 15 Nov 2016

DW (File photo)

The Mozambican police have detained four people, three Mozambicans and a Chinese national, on suspicion of attempting to smuggle illegally logged timber out of the country, reports Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily ‘Noticias’.

The detentions were made at a weighbridge in Dondo district, on the main road to the port of Beira, when a large trailer truck carrying 22.3 cubic metres of timber was stopped.

The timber was believed to be the result of illegal logging of precious hardwoods in Maringue district. The timber smugglers had used a forged licence and transport guide.

The owner of the truck and the timber is the Chinese citizen, who now has 15 days to pay a fine of 1.66 million meticais (about US$22,130, at current exchange rates).

The head of the Sofala Provincial Forestry and Wildlife Services, Paz Martinho, told ‘Noticias\ that the latest seizure follows an attempt to export to China, through the port of Beira, 50 containers of sawn wood from timber logged in Tete province.

This consignment of semi-processed wood was illegal, because it disregarded legal provisions on the size of sawn timber. The diameter of sawn timber should be no greater than 12.5 centimetres, but in this case it reached 18 centimetres. The exporter, identified only as JPZ, has been fined 2.75 million meticais.

The discovery of this attempt at illegal timber exports led to a random check in Beira on containers holding timber from Inhambane, Sofala and Tete provinces. But illegalities were only found with the containers from Tete.

Source: AIM