The Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) and the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) dismantled yesterday a factory producing "mandrax", a drug that acts as a sedative, in Matola, Maputo province. Four individuals were arrested in the operation, two Chinese and two Mozambicans.

The factory was camufled into an oficina and cornmeal warehouse, but it had another finality.

The factory had been operating for three months and the drugs were manufactured by the two foreign nationals, according to Joice Martins, head of the PRM Public Relations Department in Maputo province.

"The two citizens of Chinese nationality are the main engineers who operate the machines. An oficine and cornmeal production factory operates here, apparently those are the services performed, but main activity is drug production," he said.

The source afirma also that in the place there is more than half a ton of drugs, but SERNIC is still doing the mapping and identification of all objects and later will make the summary of the quantities that were seized.

The two Chinese nationals did not wish to make a statement.

For their part, the Mozambicans who were transporting the company's products say they didn't know they were transporting drugs.

The drug "mandrax" consists of methaqualone pills, a compound with sedative effect, widely used in pills to activate sleep.