Mozambique: SERNIC arrests alleged kidnappers – AIM report

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Mozambique: SERNIC arrests alleged kidnappers – AIM report

7:18 CAT | 25 Feb 2022

Photo: O Páis

Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) has arrested three individuals, accused of involvement in the wave of kidnappings of business people which have been rocking Maputo city.

Sernic spokesperson Hilario Lole on Wednesday in Maputo told reporters that besides the criminal gang, made up of two women and a man, aged between 29 and 40 years, the authorities has also seized a luxury house in the coastal neighbourhood of Triunfo, which was being used as a private prison to hold kidnap victims.

“When they were detained, these individuals were preparing to carry out another kidnapping”, Lole said. “The investigations we have made so far indicate that they paid, early in January, about 10,000 US dollars for three months’ rent and the house would serve as a jail”.

Lole added that they only intended to occupy the house as from 15 February. They also purchased a vehicle from one of the Maputo car dealers which the police believed they wanted to use for future kidnappings.

The two women now under arrest claim that they had been hired for house cleaning, and knew nothing about the use of the house as a prison. “I have come here to do the cleaning. My friend said that there is someone looking for people to do house work and I agreed to do it,” said one of the women.

The man, on the other hand, also claimed that he knew nothing about the use of the house to hold victims captive. He said he had only followed the orders given by a South African citizen who called him and spoke about his need to rent a house in Maputo.

Source: AIM