A 50-year-old citizen, who claims to be a member of the Armed Forces and Defense of Mozambique (FADM), is at loggerheads with the authorities after the Zambezia Judicial Court ordered his arrest for selling and consuming heroin and surruma.

For the same charges, according to Radio MozambiqueFour teenagers are being held in the city of Quelimane.

The spokesman for the National Criminal Investigation Service in Zambezia, Maximino Amílcar, explained that 69 grams of national surruma and two jars of surruma from the kingdom of e-Suatini were seized in an operation that lasted 48 hours.

"He's the owner of the drugs. He was found in his house dealing and, by the way, as he said, he's in the FADM reserve. That's what worries us. We see that there are officials who get involved in illegal acts. And the age itself, he would be helping the community to educate, but drug use is proliferating," he said.

Maximino Amílcar said that although the arrests were the result of a single operation, "everyone has their own history".

The alleged military reservist refused the accusation and said he was only a drug user, and the other accused deny their involvement in the crime.

"It was a Friday. SERNIC men arrived at my house and said they were urgently patrolling the houses. I went in with them and they hit me with surruma. Then, as it was in a jar [they deduced] that I was a salesman. I got the suruma from a man in Namarrói. We met while drinking and he sold it to me," said the 50-year-old.

One of the teenagers said he was arrested because one of the friends he was socializing with was carrying an injection syringe.

"The men from SERNIC came, and as they knew the conduct of that young man, they told us to take what we had in our pockets. I took out my plastic and money and he took out a syringe and ran off. I was beaten, handcuffed and put in the car".