VZCZCXRO8735
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHTO #1291/01 3200705
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 160705Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY MAPUTO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0991
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0569
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 MAPUTO 001291 

SIPDIS 

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCOR SNAR MZ
SUBJECT: IMPORTANT DRUG TRAFFICKING TRANSIT POINT FOR EAST 
AFRICA 

REF: STATE 105731 

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Todd C. Chapman for reasons 1.4 (b and 
d) 

¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Drug trafficking is a growing problem in 
Mozambique,  with illegal drugs entering via air and sea routes from South  Asia and  South America. Porous borders, lack of law enforcement  resources, and  rampant corruption allow drug traffickers to freely transit  the country. 
END SUMMARY 

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Air Routes 
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¶2. (S) The primary route for cocaine is by air to Maputo 
from Brazil  via Johannesburg, Lisbon or Luanda. On arrival passengers and  baggage  do not pass through immigration and customs, which allows  them to avoid  he improved security at the airports of origin. Drugs  (mostly cocaine)  are smuggled overland to South Africa for local South African  consumption  or onward to Europe. Cocaine is often smuggled by mules  and/or in 
suitcases with hidden compartments. The drug traffickers 
routinely bribe  Mozambique police, immigration and customs officials in order  to get the  drugs into the country. The decrease in drug related arrests  at Maputo  International Airport is not attributable to improved  interdiction efforts  but rather increased police and customs involvement in drug smuggling.  A high level law enforcement official admits most police drug seizures 
are not reported to his office because traffickers and police 
make  on-the-spot arrangements to allow the drugs to continue to 
flow.  Police and customs officials routinely detain drug smugglers 
and are then bribed to release the smugglers and the drugs are 
confiscated and resold. Domingos Tivane, the Director of Customs, is directly involved in facilitating drug shipments. Tivane has amassed a personal fortune in excess of a million dollars, to include numerous  investments around  Mozambique. 

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Sea Routes 
---------- 

¶3. (S) Transport by sea is the preferred route for hashish,  mandrax 
and heroin shipments, often involving large quantities.  Drugs come 
from Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. They are then loaded 
onto a  vessel that sails to Dar Es-Salam, Tanzania, or Mombasa, 
Kenya. 
Drugs are often concealed in containers with legitimate goods 
and are  often offloaded and sent via land to Mozambique. 
Alternatively, the vessel offloads its cargo in the Ports of Maputo, Beira and  especially  Nacala. Drugs are then smuggled overland to South Africa or  onward via  air, to the U.S. and Europe. 

----------------------------------- 
Two Main Drug Trafficking Networks 
----------------------------------- 

¶4. (S) There are two large drug trafficking networks that 
operate  in Mozambique. Both of these networks have ties to South 
East Asia.  Mohamed Bashir Suleiman (MBS) is the head of a well financed 

MAPUTO 00001291 002 OF 002 


organized  crime and money laundering network centered on the family  owned and  managed business conglomerate Grupo MBS. Suleiman uses Grupo  MBS and  proxies like Rassul Trading, run by Ghulam Rassul, and Niza  Group,  owned by the Ayoub family, to smuggle drugs from Pakistan via  Dubai  in containers carrying televisions, electrical equipment,  cooking oil  and automobiles. The Suleiman family has connections in  South Africa, Somalia, Pakistan, Latin America and Portugal, and maintains a complex structure of businesses with a wide variety of commercial activities  that serve as a cover for a multitude of illegal activities.  Suleiman has a close relationship with former President of  Mozambique  Joaquim Chissano and current President Armando Guebuza, and  enjoys 
ties to senior level Mozambican officials, including the  Direct 
or of Customs, Tivane. Grupo MBS and the Suleiman family 
reportedly  have connections in the Ibrahim Dawood international drug syndicate. 

¶5. (S) Ghulam Rassul Moti is a Mozambique based ethnic 
South Asian  narcotics trafficker who has smuggled hashish and heroin in the Nampula  province of Northern Mozambique since at least 1993. He has been linked to several prominent international narcotics traffickers and uses these relationships and his political influence to avoid customs and police inspections at the seaports and borders. Moti owns Rassul Trading Co. and Grupo ARJ which are major narcotics importers in Nacala, and suspected in the trafficking of persons, mainly Pakistanis. Post is also seeing increased cooperation between West and East African based narcotics networks with Mozambique drug networks. The 
main drug organizations are rumored to support extremist Islamist 
elements in Mozambique. 

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Corruption of Senior Level Government Officials 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 


¶6. (S) A porous border, lack of resources for law 
enforcement as well as endemic corruption among Mozambique's senior level officials leads to a situation where drug traffickers are able to freely transit the country. Mid-level Mozambican officials are afraid to go after people involved in the major drug networks because they know they have connections to senior level government officials. 
Senior members of the ruling FRELIMO party are seeking to hide the level of corruption from the press, the electorate and the international donor community. As a high level law enforcement official also said recently in private, 'Some fish are too big to catch.' 
CHAPMAN