Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s Attorney General says dismantling drug “makeshift factories” is not enough if those responsible are not held accountable.
The Mozambican Attorney General, Américo Letela, stated today that it is not enough merely to dismantle makeshift drug factories in the country without identifying and holding accountable the true perpetrators and major beneficiaries of the criminal network.
“The drug trafficking, fuelled by transnational networks, threatens the country’s social and economic stability. Therefore, the demand is equally clear: reveal the true perpetrators, the main beneficiaries of this criminal chain that destroys lives, families and the nation’s future,” said Américo Letela during the opening of the Coordinating Council of the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) in Maputo.
According to the official, “it is not enough just to seize drugs or dismantle makeshift factories, nor to arrest couriers, sellers and consumers.” It is “imperative” to show who profits from drug trafficking and sales in Mozambique.
“It is imperative to show who profits from the blood of our young people, men, women and children—lives lost to a clandestine market that corrodes the backbone of the country,” the Attorney General added.
A total of 950 kilograms of drugs were seized and 294 people arrested in the first half of 2025 in Mozambique, according to a report on the situation of drug consumption and illicit trafficking in Mozambique, prepared by the Central Office for Drug Prevention and Combat (GCPCD). The report highlights the involvement of public officials at drug entry points.
Mozambique is identified by several international organisations as a transit corridor for international drug trafficking to Europe and the United States, mainly heroin originating from Asia. However, seizures of cocaine from South America have also increased.
On the same occasion, Américo Letela said that drug trafficking is linked to corruption, an “insidious” crime that infiltrates institutions and weakens public trust, creating favourable conditions for the commission of other crimes, notably money laundering, terrorism, and its financing.
“This scenario demands that SERNIC uphold high standards of technical rigour, capacity for collection, processing and analysis of information, and strict compliance with applicable legal procedures,” Letela stated.
The official also demanded concrete results from the service: technically sound investigations, firm combat against violent and organised crime, transparency in actions, and an investigative service that is not merely reactive to crime but that “anticipates, dismantles and weakens it with professionalism and rigour,” through modernisation and improvement of the institution’s departments.
Américo Letela added that it is “essential” to restructure SERNIC’s criminal intelligence division to increase “proactivity,” making use of all special operational investigation techniques and other interrogation methods provided by law, as well as capitalising on work, especially with information sources in areas prone to crime preparation, planning or execution.
The Mozambican Minister of State Administration and Public Service, Inocêncio Impissa, said on Wednesday that the government will spare no effort to act against corrupt public officials.
“We are confident that if we manage to find people, cases or individuals, we will take exemplary action without hesitation,” said the minister.
