Two charged with drug trafficking and money laundering

The Maputo provincial attorney’s office has laid charges against two individuals, one a Mozambican citizen and the other a Tanzanian, who are accused of drug trafficking.

A Thursday press release from the attorney’s office, which did not name the two suspects, said they face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and criminal conspiracy.

The investigations, said the release, showed the two were part of an international trafficking ring, which transported, stored and sold drugs, inside and outside Mozambique. Their activities targeted South Africa in particular.

The two were arrested after a denunciation of illicit drugs in a house in Boane municipality, about 30 kilometres west of Maputo. At the time, this house was being rented by a foreign citizen, believed to be the leader of the group, whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Drugs were stored in the house, and the vehicles used by the gang were parked outside.

During these investigations, two other foreign citizens were arrested in a house the gang had rented in the central city of Quelimane. This house was used to store drugs temporarily, after they had been unloaded from small boats on the coast of Zambezia province.

One of the two men arrested in Quelimane later escaped from a Zambezia prison.

The Mozambican suspect was arrested at his home in Tchumene neighborhood, in the southern city of Matola. The police believed that he controlled the fleet of vehicles used by the gang.

The police seized 22 cars and trucks used by the gang, 16 in Maputo and six in Zambezia. They also seized two small boats and 9.65 million meticais in cash (151,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate).

The prosecution has sent the case papers to the Maputo Provincial Court, which will set a date for a trial.

The Central Office for the Recovery of Assets (GCRA) is investigating the finances and property of the gang.

(AIM)