Mozambique: from transit country to consumer country, drugs are gaining ground

For a long time merely a transit point in the intercontinental drug trade, Mozambique is now seeing its own population sink into drug addiction as well. Authorities are worried about a problem that is set to worsen.

An addiction on the rise

Under a scorching heat, Elton Raimundo Joaquim, 27, scours the streets near Maputo’s biggest drug-dealing hotspot, the capital, in search of scrap metal to resell. Emaciated, with an open wound on his shoulder around which a fly circles, he recounts his downfall. “I was recording music. I needed inspiration when I went into the studio,” he explains.

He tried rehab, without succeeding: “I couldn’t stand it.” He admits having stolen to pay for cannabis, crack and heroin, the main drugs in circulation in the country. “This drug has a trap: when you have a lot of money, you feel like the dose is never enough, it pushes you to buy more and more. That’s how I lost myself. I regret it. I need to get out of this. I need help, help me, please.”

He is not an isolated case. According to government figures, drug-related hospitalizations rose by 38% last year, to surpass 32,280. Experts believe these figures reflect only a fraction of the problem.

At the REMAR center, paths to rebuilding

A university graduate, Paulo Ferrao showed up four years ago at the REMAR rehabilitation center on the outskirts of Maputo as a “birthday present” to his sister. Patients there carry out tasks such as cleaning, metalwork or carpentry, and attend religious services. Now in charge of public relations in particular, he observes that young people are obtaining drugs more and more easily, including methamphetamine. “We are receiving more methamphetamine cases, which means that heroin is no longer enough for those behind the trafficking,” he says.

Flora Bonifácio, a former drug user recovering at this center, also testifies: “I started using at 16, but my family only found out when I was 28, and by then I was completely destroyed.”

A hub of global trafficking

With its 2,500 kilometers of coastline on the Indian Ocean and its porous borders, Mozambique is well placed on the routes linking producers and markets, the National Drug Prevention Bureau (GCPCD) points out. “As recently as five years ago, our country was seen only as a transit point,” its spokesman, Jose Bambo, recalls. “The drugs arrived in Mozambique, then they were distributed to the rest of the world, especially in Africa. Today, our main concern is that our country has also become a consumer.”

The country cooperates with international organizations and with authorities in the region, from Tanzania to South Africa, notably through data sharing. This cooperation has facilitated the extradition from Botswana, in recent weeks, of six Mexican nationals accused of manufacturing drugs in a village near Maputo, where methamphetamine, manufacturing equipment and chemical precursors are said to have been seized. Four other people of Mexican origin, involved in trafficking, were also arrested this year.

However, the resources are lacking: scanners, canine units, enough specialists. The traffickers, for their part, are constantly changing their methods. “Lately, the drugs have been arriving disguised as cosmetics, snacks, construction materials,” says Jose Bambo.

Fentanyl, a new arrival

Historically a transit point for heroin and methamphetamine, the country is also seeing increasing cocaine flows, via the “Lusophone route” that links Brazil with other Portuguese-speaking countries, explains Antonio De Vivo, head of the UN office against drugs (UNODC) in Mozambique. Fentanyl trafficking, the synthetic opioid behind a deadly epidemic in the United States, has also appeared: the authorities report the seizure of more than five tonnes this year.

“When you are a transit country, a small part of what passes through always ends up staying,” Antonio De Vivo sums up. Low-income countries with a young population, like Mozambique, are particularly exposed to synthetic drugs, which are cheaper. “More drugs in circulation on local markets is a danger for local consumption: it very likely means lower prices, greater accessibility, and even in a low-income country like Mozambique, easier and cheaper access to drugs for the population.”

The situation reflects a regional reality: South Africa has also dismantled laboratories where Mexicans are said to have worked as chemists or trainers of local labor. An AFP investigation published Thursday showed how this country has become ideal for the Sinaloa cartel, which produces methamphetamine there sold as far away as Australia.

“Local production will inevitably lead to an increase in consumption,” warns Antonio De Vivo. “The increase we are recording is steady and continuous, which means that the problem will probably worsen.”