12 March 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican police on Wednesday admitted that in recent weeks there has been "a strange situation" of the entry into southern Mozambique of a large number of cars stolen in South Africa.
The spokesperson for the general command of the police, Pedro Cossa, told reporters that organised gangs had hired drivers to take the cars over the border into Mozambique. He did not rule out the possibility that in some cases Mozambique was just a corridor, and the cars would be disposed of elsewhere.
"We think there's a crime syndicate linked to trafficking in vehicles", said Cossa. "There are crime bosses behind this".
To deal with these thefts, he continued, the Mozambican and South African police are working closely together, particularly at the two border posts - Ressano Garcia (on the border with the South African province of Mpumulanga), and Ponta de Ouro (on the border with Kwazulu-Natal).
Cossa said these joint operations led to the seizure of three stolen cars in the town of Namaacha (on the border with Swaziland) on 2 March. Six people were arrested, all of them Mozambican citizens.
Later another seven cars were recovered in Namaacha and Moamba districts. Three more suspects were picked up - two at Ressano Garcia and one at Ponta de Ouro. "We have stepped up our joint work over the past week", declared Cossa.
He also revealed that a woman (whom he named only as Rosalina) was arrested on 2 March, at Maputo International Airport, and found to be carrying three kilos and 65 grams of cocaine in her body.
He said the woman had come from Brazil via Lisbon. Clearly there was international cooperation between the police forces of the countries involved, for Cossa remarked "She was being followed from her departure point".
Among other successes for the police, Cossa mentioned the arrest in the central province of Zambezia of two men (who he named as Pedro and Ye-Ye) who had stolen a computer from the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the civil service.
The computer was stolen in Namacurra district, and was one of those used in the current voter registration exercise. It has been returned to STAE, and a check showed that the data it contained had not been erased.
Mm/pf (384)
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