Four citizens of South African nationality are accused by the police of the Republic of Mozambique of bringing stolen vehicles into Mozambican territory.

The individuals were arrested in flagrante delicto on Monday night (03), on the border between Mozambique and South Africa, and are being held in one of the police stations in the district of Matutuíne, Maputo province.

They were found with two undocumented cars and a refrigerated truck with falsified documents and license plates. They are believed to belong to two gangs involved in the same type of crime.

The police spokesman for the Maputo provincial command, Joarce Martins, explained that the accused were working in connection with some Mozambican citizens who are still unknown. He said that the police are working to identify and capture two other gang members who were on the run at the time of the operation.

"They are South African nationals. They had their accomplices in an undisclosed location here in Mozambique. We are currently carrying out the procedures so that the individuals can be brought before the courts and so that we can find the other members of the gang who are on the run. It is an operation that we are carrying out in order to discourage these practices, which have been recurrent. South African individuals steal vehicles and put them in Mozambique. They have their accomplices here and then they resell the vehicle," he said, quoted by Radio Mozambique.

Speaking about the constraints on the border between the two countries, the spokesman guaranteed that on the Mozambican side there are no situations that jeopardize public tranquillity.

"On the Mozambican side, we remain calm. And what we've been doing, in addition to appealing, is to mark our presence to try to detect as quickly as possible any focus that starts some unrest," he said.