More details on how Mozambican police foiled child traffickers in Chimoio

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More details on how Mozambican police foiled child traffickers in Chimoio

9:28 CAT | 25 May 2017

File photo

The police in the central Mozambican city of Chimoio on Monday detained two men, who subsequently confessed to reporters that they had kidnapped a seven year old child, whom they then attempted to sell.

The kidnappers enticed the child, whose name has not been released, to enter a house in the “7th April” neighbourhood of the city, and held him there for about ten hours, while they went looking for a “client” who would be interested in purchasing a young boy.

prm.traffic — Screen grab / TVM / The abducted boy is seven years old

The two men, Jacob Luis and Maninho Catijua, when interviewed by the independent television station STV, had no idea how much money they might make by selling the child. Nor did they say for what purposes anyone might wish to buy a child (although the suspicion must be that the child would be killed and his body parts used in black magic rituals).

But the two kidnappers were so incompetent that that had not arranged a client beforehand. One of them went into a local informal bar, and asked its owner if he was interested in purchasing the child.

Unknown to the kidnappers, the owner of the bar was a police officer, who was drinking in the company of several other off-duty policemen.

When he heard the startling proposal from the kidnapper, he pretended to go along with the proposed purchase. He accompanied the kidnapper to the house, and confirmed that a child was indeed being held there.

The policeman then revealed his identity, arrested both kidnappers and took them to the nearest police station. When interviewed by STV, they did not show the slightest remorse, but said they had hoped to make “a lot of money” from selling the child.

When the boy was abducted, his mother was in a Chimoio hospital. When she returned home later in the day, she was told what had happened, and picked up her son from the police station. She demanded “exemplary punishment” for the two kidnappers.