Mozambique: Chapas' stoppage brings back bad memories for commuters
Screen grab: Miramar
Three men are being detained at Beira’s 2nd Police Station in the city’s Ponta-Gêa neighbourhood, Notícias repors.
They were apprehended in Ndunda, in one of the city’s informal markets in possession of a bag containing 1,270,000.00 meticais, which they were trying to exchange the meticais into US dollars [which would mean around 19.8 thousand US dollars at current exchange rates].
R Ismail, A Rachide and A Saide, detained at around noon on Monday in the Ndunda neighbourhood, are being held on suspicion of money laundering, Notícias adds.
Meanwhile, the Sernic spokesperson for Beira told Miramar that two of the men had come all the way from Mueda, Cabo Delgado, to exchange the money in Beira, Sofala province, while the third man was acting as their host and ‘supporting them in their forex operation endeavour.
The two men from Cabo Delgado claim to be farmers, and that the money was from the sale of their cashew and sesame crops. They had come to Beira to convert the currency, one of them told Miramar, because the exchange rate in Cabo Delgado was unfavourable. “When it’s time for cashew, he trades in cashew. When it’s time for sesame, he trades in sesame. And, when that sesame and cashew are finished,, he takes that money and he trades in forex,” one of them explains, The reporter asks: Where does he keep the money? “To tell the truth, he keeps it in his home,” replies the only detainee who spoke to the press..
The bank notes were sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) on that same day (yesterday). The PGR, in turn, will see that the money is delivered to the central bank, the Bank of Mozambique, the Miramar reporter concludes.
Watch the Miramar report.
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