Police Dismantle Two ‘Nyamacatanas’ Gangs in Chimoio

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Police Dismantle Two ‘Nyamacatanas’ Gangs in Chimoio

6:22 CAT | 11 Jan 2016

Folha de Maputo (File)

The Mozambican police have announced the arrest of nine members of two gangs of thieves who had been terrorizing the outlying neighbourhoods of the central city of Chimoio.

The weapon of choice of the gangs was bush knives (“catanas” in Portuguese), which earned them the name of “Nyamacatanas”.

According to a report in the latest edition of the Sunday paper ‘Domingo’, there were 13 members in the two gangs. The four who escaped the police are still on the run.

Among those detained was a primary school teacher, 32 year old Primeiro Albino Saize, who headed one of the gangs.

The criminals raided homes and shops, sometimes taking the owners and security guards hostage. The police say that all nine detainees have confessed to their crimes. They had used metal cutters to break through burglar bars, and once inside had threatened their victims with knives crowbars and similar weapons.

Among the goods stolen, some of which the police have now recovered, were beds, mattresses, television sets, mobile phones, bicycles, motor-cycles, stoves and other electrical appliances.

Saize taught at the 25th June primary school in Chimoio, and in recent months his behavious, including his frequent absences, had aroused suspicions among his colleagues. It was in his house that the police found the stolen goods.

Source: AIM