Timber containers return to Pemba port, Mozambique – Noticias

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Timber containers return to Pemba port, Mozambique – Noticias

1:15 CAT | 17 May 2021

Photo: Noticias

At least 66 out of 76 containers of logs illegally exported to China have returned to the Port of Pemba over the weekend.

A total of 2032 cubic metres of wood left the Port of Pemba in an allegedly fraudulent scheme involving a Chinese employee of the company Cheufang named Kelly, named as the faithful depositor of the containers by the Provincial Court when the export operation was embargoed in August, 2020.

The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office detained the Chinese citizen after the illegal departure of the wood from the port.

Provincial chief prosecutor Octávio Zilo told the press on Sunday that the return of the wood to the Port of Pemba involved diplomatic contacts between Mozambique and China.

He explained that the public prosecutor’s office became aware that the ship carrying the contraband timber had left the Port of Pemba when the vessel was already in international waters, effectively preventing its seizure.

Zilo explained that efforts were being made for the other containers, which have meanwhile arrived in China, to be returned too. “We are working on making this happen as quickly as possible,” he said.

The chief prosecutor told reporters that another, unnamed Chinese citizen had recently been arrested for their alleged part in the operation, and indicated that investigations were ongoing to establish whether more people were involved.

The wood was first seized in August last year after an anonymous tip-off. At the time, nine individuals, including officials from the Tax Authority, inspectors from the National Agency for Environmental Quality Control (AQUA) and members of the Defence and Security Forces, all of whom had some part in handling the shipment, were detained.

The wood returned to the Port of Pemba on the same freighter, the ‘Athens’, on which it left.

Source: Noticias / Rádio Moçambique