A unit of the Mozambican police seized a shipment of fertiliser, imported by a Malawian business, because it believed it contained cocaine, reports Saturday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.A source in the Mozambican customs service told the paper that a Malawian transport company asked the Sofala Provincial Transport and Communications Directorate for authorisation to take the fertilser by truck from the port of Beira to Marromeu, and then by barge up the Zambezi river towards Malawi. This was accepted but when the truck arrived in Marromeu it was met by a heavy police apparatus. Not only were the normal police there, but so were members of the riot police, and even members of the state security service, SISE. They seized the fertiliser, on the grounds that it was cocaine, and took it back to customs in Beira.Experts from customs headquarters in Maputo were brought in, and a joint team from the Maputo and Beira customs inspected the 300 sacks of supposed cocaine. Samples were analysed in laboratories in Maputo and Beira – and the results showed that the consignment was indeed nothing more sinister than fertiliser.The truck driver was released – but nothing has so far been said about any compensation for wrongful arrest, or for the hundreds of extra kilometres the truck travelled, and for the days spent waiting for confirmation that fertiliser is indeed fertiliser.Contacted by the ”Noticias” office in Beira, the press attache of the Sofala Provincial Police Command, Mateus Mazive, said that the police were still discussing the matter.
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