Cannabis is the most widely trafficked drug in Mozambique with 1,823 tons seized by authorities in 2023. This represents an almost 20% increase from the 1,542 tons confiscated the previous year.

In context, this is way below the outflow of cannabis at the end of the Mozambique civil war (eight tons seized in 2000 according to the Institute of Security Studies in an unpublished report from the archives), when ex-combatants moved into the illegal cultivation business, deforesting large areas in the north.

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What is more alarming is the recent seizure of heroin – 620 kg during 2023, which is up almost fourfold from the 155 kg authorities uncovered in 2022. Cocaine seizures more than doubled during the corresponding period (an increase from 36 kg to 78 kg), suggesting a massive surge of activity in Mozambique in the past two years.

These figures were released in the Central Office for Preventing and Combating Drugs’ Annual Report 2024 which states that ‘there was a considerable increase in the number of arrests for international drug trafficking’ in 2023 and that ‘traffickers have continued to seek to use the country to transit drugs to different parts of the world’.

Although statistics are hard to come by, a considerable amount of the cannabis produced in Mozambique is for consumption within southern Africa. Most of the hard drugs being trafficked through Mozambique are destined for international markets.

Cannabis is widely cultivated in Northern Mozambique which produces the bulk of the country’s crop, while smaller-scale cultivation is widespread, but particularly prevalent in  the provinces of Tete, Safala, Monica, Maputo, and Cabo Delgado. Although local consumption is considerable, exports of cannabis do occur to neighbouring countries, primarily to South Africa.

Mozambican authorities have also highlighted South Africa’s growing role as a strategic hub in the international drug trafficking – criminal syndicates are positioning South Africa to receive illicit narcotics originally from Afghanistan and Brazil and then to re-export them to Europe and Australia.

READ: South Africa emerges as a key hub in the international drug trafficking supply chain

There are two main drug trafficking supply routes which end in South Africa:

• The Heroin Route from Asia (also used for methamphetamines and amphetamines) Afghanistan – Pakistan – Pemba – Zambézia – Maputo – South Africa;

• The Cocaine Route from South America:   São Paulo – Addis Ababa – Maputo – South Africa

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, seizures of the top three illicit drugs (cannabis, heroin and cocaine) amounted to 2.5 tons valued at €1.816 million.

Traffickers use suitcases, postal parcels or works of art, among other things, to conceal drugs in Mozambique.

The report says although the primary markets for hard drug trafficking are international, secondary markets have emerged as a consequence.

“The city of Maputo and the provinces of Manica and Sofala are the ones that have seen the greatest demand for psychiatric and mental health services from consumers of psychoactive substances. However, the profile of patients with mental and behavioural disorders due to the use of psychoactive substances in the country continues to be mostly made up of male patients aged between 21 and 30,’ reads the report.

In connection with drug consumption and trafficking, 923 people, 64 of them women, were detained in 2023 by the Mozambican police, a figure that represents a slight reduction on the previous year, with 306 in pre-trial detention and 617 convicted.

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