Journalists shown kidnap gang hedeouts

The police on Monday took reporters to see the four hideouts where the kidnappers imprisoned their victims in the southern city of Matola, and the adjacent district of Boane. They also displayed 22 vehicles, some of them luxury cars, seized from the gang, and which had supposedly been purchased with ransoms paid for release of their victims.

Also seized from the seven were 14 mobile phones. The police also allowed the reporters to speak to the seven detainees, but have not yet released their names. Six of the alleged kidnappers are Mozambican, and one is a Nigerian.

The police claim that the seven were acting on instructions from others. They say that have identified those who gave the orders for the abductions, but regard it as too early to announce their names as this might prejudice the ongoing investigations.

One of the detainees, identified only by the name “Angolano” (though in fact he seems to be a Mozambican citizen) said that the main figure ordering the kidnaps is a man of Indian origin, living in Maputo.

This man, said Angolano, chose the victims, set the ransom amounts, and paid the kidnappers sums that ranged between 150,000 and 200,000 meticais (5,340 to 7120 US dollars)

Angolano said that he was in charge of the operations on the ground “but the person who gave the orders is an individual of Indian origin who had his friends and they told us who should be kidnapped”.

Angolano’s wife is also among those arrested, but he swore that she is innocent. However, according to the police, she had 14 million meticais (about 500,000 US dollars) in her bank account, leading to suspicions that this was one of the accounts used to deposit the ransom money.

One of the detainees is the son of a senior police officer. His name has not been revealed – but according to a report in “O Pais” last week, he is Ilidio Manicua, son of Deputy Commissioner Rafael Manicua.

This man denied he had anything to do with the kidnaps. He said he was only arrested because he had given Angolano a lift to take him to one of the houses used by the gang. For this service Angolan had paid him 50,000 meticais (1,780 dollars) – an extraordinarily generous payment for a simple lift.

The police say that several of the gang had been serving prison sentences of up to 20 years, but had been granted parole because of good behaviour in jail. The police believe they may have got to know each other in the Maputo top security prison.