Borders of crime

It is not so often that Chiponde, the border town between Malawi and Mozambique in Mangochi features in conversations about points of entry and exit for Malawi. But, in that ‘sleepiness’, the town is alive as a gateway for converged cross-border crimes of illegal wildlife trade and trafficking of gemstones and a banned poison poachers use

By Charles Mpaka:

A criminal enterprise is thriving between Malawi and Mozambique through Chiponde, Malawi’s point of entry and exit in Mangochi.

The converged transnational operations include illegal wildlife trade, gemstone trafficking and smuggling of a pesticide banned in Mozambique.

A 30-month investigation by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, a network of 600 global and regional experts with the objective to counter criminal networks, uncovered the intertwining nature of the crimes.

In Malawi, according to the report of the investigation, wildlife traffickers make orders — with their trusted brokers —for small quantities of ivory, pangolin scales, lion teeth and claws from Mozambique.

These brokers are mostly Malawian gemstone traders.

They have well established relationships with local brokers in Niassa province.

They also have relationships with transporters and other brokers who facilitate smuggling across the border.

In Niassa province, reads the report, local brokers there based in either Lichinga, the provincial capital, or the border town of Mandimba hire poachers to source wildlife products from Niassa Wildlife Reserve, the largest protected wildlife area in Mozambique, spanning over 42 000 kms of landscape.

To undertake the operation, the Mozambican poachers ask the brokers to hire a rifle.

Those rifles can be sourced from individuals who own firearms for the purpose of hiring out.

They can also be obtained from other poachers and, sometimes, from officers from law enforcement agencies.

But there is also another tool which is used to kill the animals in the park: a pesticide commonly known as termik in Malawi. The poison has been used to kill animals such as lions in Niassa reserve.

However, termik is illegal in Mozambique, so it is not easily found. That is where Malawi becomes a source market because the pesticide is readily available in the country.

“The poachers ask the brokers… to provide them with termik. Poachers working around the artisanal gemstone-mining areas in western Niassa Reserve often request Malawian miners [who travel to buy gemstones in Mozambique] to bring termik back with them from Malawi,” the report says.

The wildlife products for this market are mostly sourced from the western side of Niassa reserve around a settlement close to an artisanal-mining site for rubies and other gemstones.

Once sourced, these wildlife products flow, together with gemstones, to the provincial capital of Lichinga.

From Lichinga, the wildlife products and gemstones are trafficked south-west to Chiponde border post through Mandimba, the Mozambican town close to Chiponde.

After, Chiponde, the items are either smuggled straight into Lilongwe or they head west where they are transported by fishing boats from Mponda to Senga Bay in Salima and then into Lilongwe.

“At all stages of this criminal economy, IWT [illegal wildlife trade], the gemstone trade (licit and illicit) and the smuggling of poison are completely intertwined,” reads the report, titled ‘Convergence of wildlife crime and other forms of transnational organized crime in Eastern and Southern Africa’ of April 2023.

An unnamed trafficker from Malawi who sources gemstone in Mozambique told the investigators:

“The local gem dealers provide the wildlife. [The gemstones and illicit wildlife products] are smuggled across the border together, and wildlife traders traffic the animal parts by mixing them with stones which have legal export documentation,” said the contact.

The trafficker said the smuggling is made possible with the aid of customs and police officials during clearing and inspection in the ports.

We sought the comment of the police and Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) about the findings in the report.

MRA spokesperson, Steven Kapoloma, asked that we share the report, which we did, so that his seniors could study its contents for informed response.

Spokesperson for Malawi Police Service, Peter Kalaya, who we also shared the report, said they are aware of some of the cases highlighted in the report.

“We are aware that cases like these are happening and we are already doing a lot to thwart this by arresting suspects and bringing them to book,” he said.

He said the police are currently working on several cases and have some suspects on remand while others are serving jail sentences.

Kalaya said the police are working with law enforcement agencies across the region and around the world to crackdown on such syndicates.

“The cooperation helps us to easily investigate the cases and gather evidence,” he said.

Kalaya further said the Malawi Police Service is both proactive and reactive in its approach to dealing with transnational crimes.

For Chiponde border post in particular, he said while the security there is tight, they continue to enhance it “so that we keep ahead of criminals who are becoming innovative and sophisticated by the day”.

“We have security strategies which we are implementing and they are bearing results.

“We will keep on improving and enhancing such strategies for the safety and security of the people we are serving,” Kalaya told Malawi News.