A stack of methamphetamine is seen before a destruction ceremony to mark the "International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking" in Yangon on June 26, 2023. Myanmar junta authorities said they torched almost half a billion dollars worth of illegal drugs on June 26, 2023, but warned they were failing to stop a surge in production and trafficking of narcotics. (Photo by SAI Aung MAIN / AFP) (Photo by SAI AUNG MAIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Maputo, 23 Feb (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) has announced the seizure on Friday of 287 kilos of methamphetamine in the central port city of Beira.
The drug was unloaded on the high seas from a ship flying an unspecified foreign flag. In connection with the case, Sernic has detained three suspects. One is a Mozambican citizen and two are Tanzanians.
Sernic also seized from the traffickers a satellite phone and four vehicles.
The Sernic Sofala provincial spokesperson, Alfeu Sitoe, said that preliminary investigations indicate that the three detainees are part of an international drug trafficking network.
“The two Tanzanians say that they were hired in Johannesburg. They were given Johannesburg-Beira air tickets and arrived in Beira on 12 January”,he said.
Their accommodation costs in Beira, Sitoe added, were paid by the head of the trafficking network “who has not yet been neutralised”.
The Mozambican detained is the owner of one of the vehicles seized. He said he had been hired to transport the sacks of drugs to Maputo, and did not know what the sacks contained.
(AIM)
RM/mz/pf (187)
