Mozambique is one of the main hubs for international drug trafficking. Experts fear that organized crime has captured the Mozambican state.

"I took hard drugs, cocaine, heroin. I lived on the street. I stole. I lost a lung and was in hospital for seven months," says José Carlos. Recalling these moments is "like being stabbed", adds the Mozambican citizen in an interview with DW Africa.

José Carlos used to be a drug addict, but stopped using eight years ago.

"I was a young man who was lost for more than 15 years in the world of drugs. Today, thanks to God, I've recovered. I'm married and have a family."

He managed to free himself from addiction. But more and more young people in Mozambique are taking drugs.

According to the Central Office for the Prevention and Combat of Drugs, between 2020 and 2021, there was an increase of 14% in drug addiction cases in Mozambique. This is an increase from around 9,700 cases in 2020 to more than 1,100 in 2021.

Experts believe that this rise is the result of the country's poverty and lack of opportunities, but also of drug trafficking. According to various international reports, Mozambique is one of the main hubs for drug trafficking in the southern region of Africa.

This is not a new phenomenon. However, the arrest in Maputo in 2020 of Gilberto Aparecido dos Santos 'Fuminho' - linked to the First Capital Command (PCC), one of the major drug trafficking factions in Brazil - has once again raised alarm bells.

Hashish, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine are at the top of the drugs that move through Mozambique to South Africa and then on to Europe.

According to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, the main network for bringing drugs into Mozambique is linked to the Pakistani mafia, which mainly brings in hashish and heroin from Afghanistan. The drugs are transported by container ships to the ports of Mombasa in Kenya and Zanzibar in Tanzania - two countries in the far north of Mozambique.

Text DW Africa