More than 100 kg of drugs seized in Cabo Delgado in 2019 found its way back onto the black market – Carta

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More than 100 kg of drugs seized in Cabo Delgado in 2019 found its way back onto the black market – Carta

4:54 CAT | 20 Apr 2020

File photo: Social Media

In December 2019, Mozambican authorities intercepted two vessels carrying large amounts of heroin and crack cocaine. The first group of Iranian smugglers set their boat on fire, and the cargo was not recovered, but 430 kg of heroin and ‘ice’ was seized from the second vessel, manned by Pakistani drug traffickers.

ALSO READ: Mozambique: Second major heroin seizure in Cabo Delgado – AIM report

Drugaspkpk.sm_ — File photo: Social Media

A source involved in the operation has told our reporter that 100kg of heroin and ice had been moved from the warehouse where it was being held. It will be used as evidence during the trial of the defendants, who are being held in the maximum security jail in Mieze, Cabo Delgado.

The source says that the police officers who were supposed to secure the drugs were selling them on the black market in Pemba city and elsewhere, and that the situation was only addressed when a team dispatched from Maputo for Pemba took the contraband to another warehouse at a secret location.

The disappearance of the drugs from Pemba left the Director-General of the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), Domingos Jofane, “with his nerves on edge”, and efforts are now underway to hold the agents involved accountable.

At the latest SERNIC press conference in Maputo on April 14, Leonardo Simbine downplayed claims that the 2018 seizures had made Mozambique a drug corridor of renown.

ALSO READ: Part of the heroin and ‘ice’ seized in Cabo Delgado allegedly destined for Tanzania – Carta

Simbine said no studies confirmed this thesis, and that it ran counter to reports from organisations like ENACT, which had already demonstrated that drug trafficking was elevated especially in Nampula and Cabo Delgado provinces and Maputo City.

By Omardine Omar

Source: Carta de Moçambique