Charles Mangwiro and Justin Arenstein
The Mozambican government appears to own 20% of the plastic pipe factory outside Maputo where police last week pulled off Africa’s largest ever Mandrax bust.
The raid by a squad of South African and Mozambican police netted over 300kg of methaqualone power meant for the manufacture of at least 30-million Mandrax tablets worth an estimated R900-million.
The Plasmex factory fronted as an extruded plastic pipe manufacturer, but police said it was equipped with the latest high-technology drug processing equipment yet confiscated by regional police.
Three Mozambicans and two other unnamed workers were arrested during the February 12 raid, which was co-led by South African police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Police have also not yet released the name of the son-in-law of a top South African businessperson, whose earlier arrest in Mozambique reportedly led police to the factory.
Mozambican company registration records confirm however that Plasmex is a recently privatised state enterprise, in which the government retains a 20% shareholding.
Plasmex was previously operated by the state as Emplama and was privatised as part of Mozambique’s drive to liberalise its previously socialist economy.
Maputo businessman Andre Ernesto Timana holds a controlling 50% stake in Plasmex, while Jacinto Luis Nhamoneque holds the remaining 30%.
Neither would comment on the raid or their links to Plasmex on Monday.
Mozambique’s interior ministry also declined to comment either on the state’s shareholding or on police investigations into the Mandrax operation. Officials stressed, however, that the state routinely retained shareholding in privatised companies without any managerial or other input.
Mozambican police, meanwhile, confirmed on Wednesday that the machinery used to produce the Mandrax tablets appeared to be linked to an earlier 1995 drug bust in the Matola suburb of Trevo.
Police arrested 10 Indian and Pakistani citizens during that raid and confiscated a manual for the equipment, as well as spare parts and chemical ingredients for Mandrax.
The equipment had, however, been moved just hours before the raid and police were unable to trace the new factory.
A Mozambican supreme court denied bail for any of the Trevo suspects, but Maputo provincial attorney Luis Muthisse ordered their release.
All 10 suspects promptly fled the country. Police then detained the Spanish managing director of Mozambican shipping company Afropesca, Luis da Costa Virott, following confirmation that the Mandrax equipment was imported on an Afropesca ship.
Mozambican Assistant Attorney General Afonso Antunes said on Monday that Virott was “mysteriously” released from custody following the intervention of prominent Portuguese attorney Romeu Frances.
He was allowed to fly to Lisbon in Portugal for consultation but has failed to return.
Muthisse was sacked for his “disgraceful conduct” in the case and the attorney general’s office issued an international warrant for Virott’s re-arrest.
He has yet to be arrested or extradited from either Portugal or Spain, forcing police to shelve their investigations until the new breakthrough on February 12.
South African police indicate they are questioning three German, British and South African suspects in South Africa, but declined to comment further for fear of prejudicing their investigation.
Two suspects – one South African, one foreign – have been arrested and will appear in a Johannesburg court on March 15, where the state will apply for extradition orders to Mozambique.