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Mozambique has only one reliable road that goes from north to south of the country, yet this road has become the backbone of the lucrative heroin trade.
Heroin is probably Mozambique's biggest export since the end of the war, according to a new report that details this underground industry. Officially, its two main exports in 2016 were raw aluminum and coal, worth $ 378 million and $ 678 million respectively. Exports of electricity also reached $ 378 million in 2016.
More than two decades after the end of the civil war in Mozambique, heroin trafficking has turned into a network tightly regulated run by connected families and sanctioned by the political elite. The heroin coast: A political economy along the East African coastline ", published this week the report of the Geneva-based Global Initiative on Transnational Crime
. and other messaging applications. In a separate and more detailed study of the report on East Africa, Joseph Hanlon, a researcher and former journalist of the London School of Economics, observed "the ubiquity of the trade of people. heroin in Mozambique "
. has become an important transit point in the world drug trade. Unlike Tanzania and Kenya, Mozambique's trade has been able to function in a very regularized way because the families at the top would have been able to build strong ties within the ruling party
. Empty seaside hotels and a glitzy mall in downtown Maputo. At its peak, tramp families were even able to launder their money through state bonds, says Hanlon. Families were, however, the subject of close scrutiny when Mohamed Bachir Suleman was kicked out by a linchpin in a WikiLeaks cable, which was confirmed by former President Barack Obama in 2010.
Freelancers disrupt this business with WhatsApp and other messaging services. The drugs are trafficked by drivers and fishermen who follow the anonymous instructions from Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, bypbading traditional networks. With encrypted applications like Telegram, Viber and Signal, resellers can send photos of the product and the contact person, which makes it easier to trust so-called freelancers. It may be fishermen who carry heroin ashore or truckers who want to earn money by participating in the criminal economy
Heroin still travels to Mozambique in a rather old fashioned way. The motorized dhows leave the Makran coast off Pakistan and Iran with heroin produced in Afghanistan. They usually measure no more than 15 to 23 meters (49 to 75 feet) and are small enough to navigate the Indian Ocean without being detected by satellite or patrol vessels. If they are arrested, they claim to be fishing vessels, with drugs hidden in hidden compartments, according to reports.
Pemba and the Quirimbas archipelago, usually badociated with idyllic tourist spots in Mozambique, are identified as landing areas for drugs. with calm waters and sand dunes that are good for hiding smugglers. Larger amounts of heroin arrive by container, packed with motorcycles and appliances from the Middle East or Pakistan Rice. A bribe would be enough to avoid searching.
This new decentralized model, with its improved communication channels, allows traffickers to follow the "Latin American" model by choosing isolated roads. Improved mobile signals mean that pivots can transmit the phone number of a bribed official. The so-called freelance drivers receive money to bribe officials and are paid thanks to the money of corruption that remains, as few heroin actually stays in Mozambique.
Most of it is destined for Johannesburg, where it is making its way into the European market. Mozambique has scant reports of successful raids, but evidence of trade is being discovered by neighbors. In January, a Mozambican driver was arrested in neighboring Swaziland after being caught with 200 kilograms of heroin, while in June 2017, another driver was arrested while he was trying to cross the border. border with South Africa.
this disruption will suffice to dismantle the Mozambican criminal network. While the criminal economy has created a parallel trade, it relies on traditional corruption within the police and the judiciary.
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