Presidente do Tribunal Supremo, Adelino Muchanga, no acto da instalação do primeiro Tribunal Marítimo em Moçambique
Maputo, 2 Feb (AIM) – The number of cases of drug trafficking entering the Mozambican courts has risen significantly in recent years, according to the President of the Supreme Court, Adelino Muchanga.
Speaking in Maputo on Thursday, at the ceremony marking the opening of the 2024 Judicial Year, held on the theme “Strengthening the role of the judiciary in the fight against drug trafficking”, Muchanga said that the number of cases concerning drug trafficking and consumption entering the court system rose from 491 in 2021 to 659 in 2022, an increase of 34.2 per cent.
In 2023, the number reached 964 – a further increase of 46.2 per cent, compared with the 2022 figure.
Muchanga said recent advances in transport and communications have made illicit businesses, such as drug trafficking, easier, with an expansion of illegal markets.
Globalisation, he claimed, hid an intricate web of illicit markets, in a labyrinth of transactions. Decentralised networks of criminal groups had arisen, providing services to the various parts of the drug supply chains.
Mozambique, Muchanga said, was a desirable country in the geo-strategy of organized crime, because of its location, the porous nature of its frontiers and corruption among state agents.
Drug trafficking, he stressed, is a highly profitable industry which moves billions of dollars annually.
Muchanga admitted that, despite the increased number of drugs cases coming before the Mozambican courts, the balance of the fight against the traffickers is far from satisfactory.
“There is room for improvements”, he said, stressing the need to invest seriously in inspection and investigation. This should include providing law enforcement bodies with modern techniques, including those used to detect illicit drugs, and intercepting the communications of the traffickers.
The Attorney-General, Beatriz Buchili, told the meeting that international cooperation, both formal and informal, could facilitate identification of the international drug trafficking networks that operate in Mozambique.
“We are, unfortunately, ensnared in international drug trafficking, and we cannot imagine that the solution is solely national”, she said.
Buchili pointed out that the Mozambican state’s commitment to the fight against drug trafficking has allowed the extradition, over the past two years, of traffickers to the United States, Holland and Brazil.
She added that “this scourge requires approval of a robust legal framework, involving amending the laws in accordance with the current reality of the production, trafficking and consumption of drugs in the country”.
These amendments, Buchili said, should deal with new synthetic drugs, and envisage prison terms and fines “in line with the new economic and social conjuncture”.
She stressed the need to strengthen the integrity of Mozambican institutions, since corruption is one of the instruments used by organized crime to achieve its goals.
(AIM)
Pf/ (451)
