Five employees of the Mozambican migration services were arrested, suspected of facilitating the entry of foreigners seeking to recruit members for drug trafficking that finances terrorists, Mozambican police announced Friday.
The officials were detained as a result of an arrest warrant issued by the Sofala Provincial Judicial Court, as part of ongoing investigations following the arrest on Tuesday of five foreigners seeking to recruit members for drug trafficking that finances terroristsexplained to the media, in Beira, the spokesman for the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) of Mozambique in Sofala, Alfeu Sitoe.
“There are strong indications of his involvement in the case of the foreigners arrested on Tuesday,” Sernic’s spokesman stressed, without giving further details.
On Tuesday, Mozambican police arrested four men and one woman, all foreigners, at a residence in the city of Beira on suspicion of recruiting members for the drug trade, which finances terrorists in the country.
Mozambican Police Arrest Suspected Terrorist Financing
Passports and other identity documents from Kenya and Somalia were seized in the operation, but they appear to be fake, according to Sernic.
The lawsuit was filed based on the information that the group of foreigners was engaged in the practice of various crimes, such as drug trafficking, illegal immigration and human trafficking.
According to a Sernic spokesperson, one of the members “has been recruiting Kenyan citizens to integrate them into the insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado“, more than a thousand kilometers away.
Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.
There are 784,000 internally displaced persons due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and some 4,000 dead, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with the support of Rwanda, to which the Southern African Development Community (SADC) later joined, has allowed the recovery of areas where there was a presence of rebels, but their flight has provoked new attacks. . in other districts used as a step or temporary shelter.
Source: Observadora
