Money Launderers Own 14 Passports – Mozambican Criminal Investigation Police Tells SA Court

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Money Launderers Own 14 Passports – Mozambican Criminal Investigation Police Tells SA Court

10:17 CAT | 15 Jan 2016

In file Club of Mozambique.

The Mozambican Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) on Wednesday provided the South African Public Prosecutor’s Office with information that the two Mozambicans arrested at the border in possession of the equivalent of 7.3 million US dollars in cash hold no less than 14 passports between them.

According to the PIC data, cited by the independent television station STV, Assane Momad owns nine passports, and Abdul Ahmed five. Only three passports were seized by the South African police when Momad and Ahmed were arrested at the Lebombo border post on Christmas Day.

All 14 passports are Mozambican and all are valid. The PIC documentation delivered to the court in the South African town of Barberton gave the numbers of the passports, the dates on which they were requested and the dates of issue.

The multiplicity of passports raises further suspicions about the activities these two men are involved in. Normally Mozambican citizens carry just one passport, which can only be replaced when it expires, or if it is stolen or lost. Serious questions will now be asked of the Mozambican passport service – why did it accept requests from Momad and Ahmed for so many passports?

The court had intended to decide on the bail application from the two men on Wednesday, but instead the judge accepted a request from the prosecution for a further 24 hour delay to assess how all the passports had been used.

The prosecutor also argued that by failing to mention the existence of the other passports, Momad and Ahmed had shown disrespect towards the court. She added that, by concealing this fact, they showed there was something suspicious about their movements.

The defence lawyer for the two, Peter Naude, claimed there was no need to investigate the other passports, because the movements of his clients had all been legal. Nonetheless he promised to bring Momad’s other passports to the court on Thursday. He could not do the same for Ahmed, he alleged, because he had no way of contacting his family.

The prosecution claimed that the two men had crossed and recrossed the birder intensively, sometimes several times on the same day, and that some of these movements were not registered by the South African immigration authorities. The defence brushed this off as “a software failing”.

Meanwhile, at the Mozambican end the police are investigating the activities of Momad and Ahmed. The spokesperson for the General Command of the Mozambican police, Inacio Dina, told reporters it was very likely that in the next few days the police will arrest others supposedly involved in this money laundering case.

Source: AIM