Africa-Press – Mozambique. Nampula (Mozambique), 17 Dec (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) on Friday, in the northern city of Nampula, presented to the media two men accused of possessing and selling heroin.
Both men were caught on a beach near the town of Angoche, and say they are merely motor-cycle taxi drivers, who have nothing to do with drug trafficking.
They said they were requested to carry the drugs by the true owners, who fled when the police approached.
The Sernic Nampula spokesperson, Enina Tsnine denied this claim and told reporters that the men were members of a network of drug traffickers who operate on the Nampula coast. She said the traffickers receive the drugs on the high seas, in the Mozambique Channel, where they are transhipped from large vessels to small boats, which carry the ashore.
On the coast the drugs are packaged and then transported by road, distributed to Maputo, and onwards to other countries.
Tsnine said the two supposed taxi drivers were caught red-handed. “We seized two kilos of heroin and three motorbikes used for transport”, she said. “Those we detained say the drugs belong to an individual called Ali, who lives on Mozambique Island. He’s currently on the run”.
She added that the police are worried that Nampula is being used as a corridor to transport illicit drugs. In less than three days, she stressed, “we have seized cocaine, cannabis of Swazi origin, and now heroin”.
“But work is now under way to halt this crime and bring those responsible to justice”, she said.
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