Some of this haul was seized in the provincial capital, Nampula city, and the rest in the coastal town of Angoche.
Speaking at a Nampula press conference on Thursday, the spokesperson for the Nampula Provincial Police Command, Inacio Dina, said that three people have been arrested in connection with the case, including an old man named A. Abudala, the owner of the house in Angoche where much of the hashish was found buried in the back yard.
Abudala is a repeat offender – he has been jailed in the past for selling hashish in Angoche.
Abudala told reporters that the hashish had been buried in his yard for about six months, at the request of a man from the neighbouring province of Cabo Delgado. Abudala said he did not know who this man was, but nonetheless he agreed to store the drugs for him.
A stepson of Abudala later took seven kilos of the drug from its hiding place. The police say he intended to sell it in Nampula city and use the money to bribe his way into a job.
The police do not believe Abudala’s tale of a mysterious visitor from Cabo Delgado. “What we know is that these drugs come from a ship that anchored some miles from islands off the Angoche coast”, said Dina. “The drugs are then brought ashore on smaller, hired boats. There are then circuits that the drugs follow, but they are sometimes diverted from their intended circuits – and this helps the police arrest and neutralize the traffickers”.
Dina hoped that this time the detention of Abudala will lead the police to the true owners of the hashish.
Post published in: Africa News