Mozambique: Alleged Money Launderers Remanded in Custody
Maputo -- A judge in the South African town of Barberton on Monday remanded in custody the two Mozambicans arrested at the Lebombo border post on Christmas Day as they attempted to smuggle the equivalent of 7.3 million US dollars in banknotes from Mozambique into South Africa.
The two men, named as Hassan Momade and Abdul Ahmed, made a brief court appearance on Monday afternoon, but the judge declared that more time was needed for investigations. The two will be held at Komatipoort police station, until they return to the Barberton court next Monday.
The judge must then decide whether to keep them in jail until the trial, on charges of money laundering, is held, or to release them on bail.
The men's defence lawyer, Peter Naude, told a team from the independent television station STV, which attended the hearing, that Hassan Momade has taken full responsibility for smuggling the money over the border.
He claimed that the second accused, Abdul Ahmed, was merely a passenger in the pick-up truck, and was quite unaware that the vehicle was carrying millions of dollars in a hidden compartment.
Momade had earlier told reporters that the money resulted from the sale of cell phones in Mozambique. The story makes no sense, since Mozambicans use the national currency, the metical, to buy their cell phones. Momade would need to explain how he had managed to convert the meticais into millions of dollars and euros and why, if the money was obtained legitimately, he had not deposited it in a bank.
It is not yet known where Momade and Ahmed were taking the money. In previous cases where large amounts of money transiting South Africa have been seized, the traffickers have declared their final destination as Dubai.
Two Mozambicans suspected of money laundering were arrested by the South African authorities on Christmas eve after being caught carrying millions of dollars in banknotes hidden in the back of a pick-up truck, APA learns here Monday.
According to local media reports, the South African police seized 4.9 million US dollars, 2.2 million euros and 20,000 South African rands, which amounts to US$7.3 million.
The money was allegedly hidden in a compartment carefully built in the back of the truck but it would have escaped detection had it not been for an anonymous tip-off to the South African police.
Once the police had found the money it took them about five hours to count it.
Private television Station STV quotes a spokesperson for the South African Revenue Service (SARS), Sandile Memela, as saying that the seizure took place on Christmas day.
"The authorities searched the vehicle and found false compartments and when the driver was questioned, he said they were empty, but the police opened the compartments and found plastic bags full of money”, she said
The police, who did not reveal the identities of the two men, said this was the largest such seizure in South African history and they promised to work with the Mozambican police to determine whether the two suspects are part of a larger crime syndicate.
The men, who said they were driving from Maputo to Johannesburg, are being charged with money-laundering, and they will appear in court in Komatipoort next week.
This is not the first time large amounts of foreign currency have been smuggled out of Mozambique. In December 2010, Mozambican businessman Momed Khalid Ayoob was detained in Swaziland in possession of 18 million South Africa rands in banknotes, equivalent to US$2.6 million at the exchange rate of the time.
He admitted that he was taking the money to Dubai. However, the Swazi authorities confiscated the money and started criminal proceedings against Ayoob. That case never reached its conclusion because in April 2012, Ayoob was gunned down by an unidentified assailant outside a mosque in central Maputo.