Maputo — The Mozambican police have arrested two people in connection with the kidnapping, on 18 December, of Zainadin Dali, owner of the Lafoes bakery in Maputo.

On Tuesday, at his weekly press briefing, Pedro Cossa, the spokesperson for the General Command of the Mozambican Police, identified the two suspects only as Mahomed and Shafar. He said the latter is known in the criminal underworld by the nickname “Van Damme”.

Cossa said the kidnappers had held Dali prisoner in a house near Maputo International Airport.

“After the police discovered that the kidnappers were hiding their victims on the outskirts of the city (a reference to the arrest of other alleged kidnappers last year), they switched to hiding them in the inner city”, he said. “Even so, we managed to find them”.

At the house the police also seized two Toyota vehicles, believed to have been used in kidnappings, and large sums of money. In all there were 45,000 US dollars and 550,000 meticais (about 18,500 dollars) in the house. It is not yet clear whether this money is part of the ransom money paid to the kidnap gang.