Mozambican police have arrested a man suspected of involvement in two kidnappings that took place in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, one of which was recorded on Monday, a source from the National Criminal Investigation Service (Cernic) told Luse on Tuesday.
“Yesterday we managed to arrest [segunda-feira] “The man involved in the June 26 kidnapping of a businessman who managed to escape from captivity,” said Hilario Loulé, Cernic’s representative in the southern Mozambican city of Maputo.
The man is also suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of a businessman that took place on Monday evening between avenues Martires da Machava and 24 de Julio in central Maputo, the spokesman said.
Hilario Loulé added that the victim would be sent to the same prison where another businessman was held in June after he was forcibly seized by a group of six armed men, also in central Maputo, and had managed to escape in the meantime.
“They realized that we had already taken over the captivity and that we had nowhere to go. [prender a vítima]”After some intense work with them, we were able to release the victim of yesterday’s kidnapping, who is now with his family,” added Sernik’s representative.
On Saturday afternoon, a businessman’s son was kidnapped on a central avenue in Maputo and a Mozambican police officer was killed in a shootout.
Hilario Lole said there was evidence that the man arrested was also involved in Saturday’s kidnapping, the victim of which has still not been partially identified.
By March, Mozambique police had recorded a total of 185 kidnapping cases and at least 288 people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the crime since 2011, the interior minister said in March.
“The city of Maputo has the highest trend and number of criminal cases of kidnapping, followed by the province of Maputo and finally Sofala with a record of 103, 41 and 18 cases respectively,” Minister Pascoal Ronda said on December 19 last March.
Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi acknowledged in Maputo this week that kidnappings remain a problem in the country and asked police to identify their “masterminds”.
“To a certain extent, cases of kidnapping [nos últimos cinco anos] were more enlightened than in previous periods, although we recognize that their eradication still represents a challenge for our National Criminal Investigation Service and other law enforcement agencies,” Filipe Nyusi said at a meeting of the Coordination Council of the Ministry of the Interior in Maputo
Nyusi asked police to introduce “ordinary people” to Mozambicans about kidnappings in the country as one of the mechanisms to stop this type of crime.
“Bring in even one director, you will see that the narrative will change because the directors are very scared, we just need to take a certain measure and they will soon run away,” the head of state said, calling for increased attention to Sernik.