Mozambique: Man arrested unloading 61 kilos of heroin on northern coast – police

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Mozambique: Man arrested unloading 61 kilos of heroin on northern coast – police

6:33 CAT | 28 Jan 2021

FILE PHOTO . For illustration purposes only

The Mozambican authorities arrested a 37-year-old man in possession of 61 kilos of heroin and five kilos of methamphetamine while unloading the drugs in Nampula province, northern Mozambique, an official source told Lusa on Thursday.

The was caught red-handed on Saturday when, along with five Tanzanians, who fled, he was unloading the drugs on the coast of Nacala Porto district, Enina Tsinine, spokeswoman for the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) said.

According to Sernic, the other gang members fled when they saw the police, some by land and some by sea, on the bB and, because it was dawn, the police could not locate them.

Later the coastal police patrolled to see if there was any trace of the boat, but without any success, the spokeswoman said, the police suspected that the drugs came from Tanzania.

According to the authorities, sources living near the coast reported strange movements in the region, which put the police on alert.

Sources said strangers were looking for houses to rent and sometimes others arrived by sea, and unloaded goods that were supposed to go on to Maputo said Enina Tsinine.

“The man we arrested confessed that he had been doing this business for a while,” the spokeswoman said.

The authorities suspect that this is a drug trafficking network, and are advising that investigations are underway.

Several international organisations say Mozambique is a corridor for international drug trafficking.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Organised Crime (UNODC), the authorities in Kenya and Tanzania, countries north of Mozambique, have increased surveillance in recent years, pushing traffickers southwards towards the Mozambican coast in search of new routes and new markets.

Source: Lusa