Mozambique: Drug trafficking, cash car deals may be financing terrorism – O País

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Mozambique: Drug trafficking, cash car deals may be financing terrorism – O País

3:41 CAT | 16 Nov 2022

Image: O País

The Attorney General of the Republic says that drug trafficking is financing terrorism in the country, as may also be certain car sales establishments. Beatriz Buchili says that Mozambique is no longer a route for drug trafficking but a recipient.

Beatriz Buchili this Monday paid a visit to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Maputo to monitor levels of sector performance. The Attorney General of the Republic said on the occasion that she was concerned about organised crime, especially drug trafficking. She denounced the existence of factories producing psychotropic substances in various parts of the country’s capital.

“There may be a decrease in crime, but there is a significant increase in high-impact crimes, such as drug trafficking. Regarding drug trafficking and consumption, Mozambique was a transit country, but in the last two to three years we have become a consumption country. And as we know, drug trafficking is a crime that can finance, or rather, finances terrorism, so we have to look into this drug trafficking issue,” Buchili warned.

Allied to this is the proliferation of car sales businesses whose financial transactions are carried out in cash, which makes it difficult for authorities to control. “I don’t even know the legality of these establishments, because they are lots which carry out financial transactions without using the banking system – you pay in cash. This is worrying for a country that has the challenge of preventing and fighting terrorism, as it can be a mechanism for financing this evil. We have to check what is happening,” Buchili said.

Abductions are another concern, with the public prosecutor questioning the movement of large sums of ransom money.

“The money from the kidnappings too… Where does it go? How can the ransom be paid in cash, what is happening? Ransoms are not paid with bank transactions, they are paid in cash, where is all the money that pays the ransoms? So, there needs to be a lot of work from various actors, including society itself. I want to understand how we are working in these cases, because Maputo continues to be the city with the highest rate of kidnapping cases,” Buchili concluded.

Beatriz Buchili’s visit to Maputo City will last four days. At this Monday’s meeting, Public Prosecutor Tássia Marisa Martins Simões made it known that the Maputo City Attorney General’s Office processed 8,014 criminal cases from January to October of the current year.

By Amandio Borges

Source: O País