PRM have confirmed the arrest of an 86-year United States national in possession of 5 kilograms of illegal drugs at Maputo International Airport prior to boarding a Dubai-bound flight.
Police in Mozambique (PRM) spokesperson at the Maputo city level, Leonel Muchina is quoted by state radio on Sunday, 26 May 2019, as the drugs were discovered at a security checkpoint as the suspect headed to the departure lounge.
“In fact, we are finalising the process of boarding international flights, bound for South Africa, the final destination being France from Dubai, when we arrested American national aged 86 years old, who had packed in the false bottom of his suitcase, five kilos of cocaine and two kilos of heroin,” Muchina told the Maputo-broadcaster on Sunday, 26 May 2019.
According to Muchina, this is the second case of drugs seized at Maputo International Airport this year and authorities have been steadily strengthening borders in order to try to stem this practice.
To that end, Muchina says that “the Police of the Republic of Mozambique has privileged the reinforcement of surveillance. So much so that here at the airport we have allocated several forces from the PRM, we refer to the police of protection, we also have National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) and we have a whole security system to repress these practices in the sense of to retrain these practices or entry or exit of narcotics from Mozambican borders.”
According to a new report by a London-based research firm, Mozambique has emerged as one of the world’s key heroin trading hubs, with the drug now the country’s second largest export as it is smuggled from Afghanistan to Europe and America.
– APA
