found that the insurgents’ strategy may have been aimed at taking control of trafficking routes and transport hubs to make money from the illicit economy.
The fact that the profits from both licit and illicit markets in Cabo Delgado were being channelled to a narrow political and military elite left people in the region impoverished and angry, contributing to the growing insurgency. For example, some early recruits into the organisation were reported to be drawn from the communities of artisanal miners operating in Montepuez.
, referred to “a nexus between terrorism finance and narcotics trafficking in Mozambique that’s particularly problematic” in relation to the US designation of ASWJ as a foreign terrorist organisation.Illicit flows through northern Mozambique as of June 2020. Source: Alastair Nelson, A triangle of vulnerability: changing patterns of illicit trafficking off the Swahili coast, GI-TOC, June 2020.
Drug shipments from dhows were previously offloaded onto beaches around Mocímboa da Praia, Quissanga and Pemba in Cabo Delgado. However, drop-offs are now made at points further south, including Pemba, but also Nacala and Angoche.
On 24 March, 356kg of crystal meth and heroin were seized by police on Numa beach in Nacala while being offloaded from a boat. The crew escaped arrest via sea;announced that it had seized 440kg of heroin in Quelimane, a town on Mozambique’s central coast.
Several suspects arrested in Pemba in January 2021 in connection with drug trafficking, likely in connection with the same dhow seized by the French navy, are known to be Zanzibari. The suspects named a Zanzibari woman as the trafficker they were working for. This woman, who had previously worked as a drug mule trafficking heroin, built up capital and now directs her own trafficking operation moving drugs from the coastal landing sites to South Africa.
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