More than 20 Mozambican drug mules serving time in Brazil will soon be transferred to finish their sentences in Mozambique, thanks to the recent approval of a prison transfer agreement, Vista News reported on Tuesday.
This was revealed by Justice Minister Esperanca Machavela in an interview published this week in the Sunday newspaper Domingo.
She said the bilateral agreement between Mozambique and Brazil will make possible the transfer of the 25 drug carriers, mainly women.
Portuguese-speaking countries recently debated the signing of the bilateral agreement among member states.
Machavela said the Mozambican government will contact the Brazilian embassy in Maputo to facilitate a meeting of Mozambican and Brazilian authorities and come up with the final methods of transfer.
In 2005, about 10 Mozambicans travelling from Brazil were arrested at Maputo International Airport after special scanners discovered drugs hidden in their stomachs. Special scanners installed at Maputo International Airport have the capacity to detect drugs hidden in baggage or in stomachs.
When Mozambique and Brazil started more intensive inspection of people travelling between the two countries, it resulted in the arrest and detention of the 25, who are currently languishing in Brazilian jails after being caught for trafficking, mostly in cocaine.
In 2005, Mozambican Attorney General Joaquim Madeira visited 14 Mozambican women detained at Tatuape maximum-security prison in São Paulo in Brazil.
Madeira told Domingo in an interview published this week that most of the Mozambican women had been imprisoned in Brazilian jails for periods of up to two years.
Internationally, Mozambique is considered to be one of the main drug corridors used by locals and foreigners to transport drugs to destinations such as South Africa.
In 2005, the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated that 865 of its citizens were in jails abroad for drug trafficking. The largest numbers were in jails in Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. — Sapa