The Criminal Investigation Service of Mozambique (Sernic) seized 80 kilograms of drugs and arrested a national, in an operation that reignited the debate about drug trafficking and a possible link to the insurgency in Cabo Delgado.
According to the corporation, the seizure of 42 kilograms of cocaine, 34 of amphetamine and four kilograms of heroin (totaling 80 kilograms) of drugs is the result of a three-month investigation into drug transactions in Mecufi.
“Diligences are underway to neutralize other members,” said Noémia João, Sernic spokeswoman in Cabo Delgado, assuring that the drugs came from the Comoros Islands and were destined for Nampula province.
“For the conflict in Cabo Delgado the drug is there and the drug barons are there,” noted political analyst Tobias Zacarias, who recalls that Mozambique has already been denounced by the governments of South Africa and the United States as one of the largest drug trafficking hubs for the continent and the world.
He notes that the State does not impose itself in all places of the country, and therefore does not have the capacity to control its borders, hence the facilities for drug transactions occurring on the Cabo Delgado coast, including in Nampula and Zambézia.
In October 2021, the Mozambican authorities incinerated in Pemba 250 kilos of drugs that had been seized in some of the locations affected by the armed violence that broke out in 2017.
Studies by several international organizations had already linked drug trafficking and insurgency in Cabo Delgado, highlighting that Islamic State insurgents are also involved in drug trafficking in northern Mozambique and Tanzania.