Mozambique: Huge drug bust in Quelimane nets 440 kilos of heroin worth millions

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Mozambique: Huge drug bust in Quelimane nets 440 kilos of heroin worth millions

12:29 CAT | 22 Mar 2021

Photo: Jornal Diário da Zambézia

The Mozambican National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) on Friday (March 19) announced the seizure of 440 kilograms of heroin from a residence in Quelimane, in the centre of the country, confessing surprise at the size of the haul.

According to United Nations Office for Drugs and Organised Crime (UNODC) figures for the value of drugs trafficked on the east coast of Africa, the goods seized are worth at least €11 million, a figure that can be multiplied many times by the time it reaches the consumer.

“This is a very large amount. We, as authorities, are surprised,” Sernic director Obdele Basílio said.

One hundred and eighty kilos of cannabis and 5.5 kilograms of morphine were seized in the same raid.

Operation

In the operation on Thursday March 18), Sernic detained a Tanzanian man and two Mozambicans. One of the detainees “used the residence as a warehouse” and took the drug “in very small quantities to Maputo province and South Africa” Obdele Basílio said.

Basílio said the heroin was from Tanzania, and that Quelimane, a city near the Indian coast and capital of the province of Zambézia, was being used as a reception and distribution centre for a trafficking network. According to the Sernic leader, investigations are underway to investigate connections to other criminal networks.

Mozambique is identified by several international organisations as a corridor for international drug trafficking. According to UNODC, authorities in Kenya and Tanzania have increased surveillance recently, pushing traffickers southwards towards the Mozambican coast, “in search of new routes and new markets”.

Seizure in Quelimane

The seizure in Quelimane follows other large-scale seizures made this year. On March 10, the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) seized 103 kilograms of heroin, ‘crack’ and hashish in a vehicle during a police inspection on National Road No. 1 in Murrupula district, Nampula province.

On February 2, the police arrested a businessman in the city of Pemba, in Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, in possession of 180 kilograms of ephedrine, a substance often used in the manufacture of drugs.

On January 28, the French navy announced that one of its frigates in the Indian Ocean had seized 417 kilograms of methamphetamine and 27 kilograms of heroin on a dhow off the coast of Mozambique, estimating the value of the haul at more than €40 million.

In the same week, Mozambican authorities detained a 37-year-old man unloading 61 kilograms of heroin and five kilograms of methamphetamine off a vessel in Nacala Porto district, Nampula province, in the north of the country.

Source: Deutsche Welle / Obtala TV