Good afternoon. With the arrest last week of the businessman Umberto Sartori and others, the Mozambican authorities are holding a wolf by the ears. Letting go of the wolf would be dangerous, but neither can they hold onto it indefinitely. As the newspaper Savana reports, Sartori (sometimes called Sartone) and the others were arrested in response to an intervention from the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which has been interrogating Nurolamin Gulam, arrested by US authorities in 2024 and suspected of drug trafficking.
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Gulam is reported to have provided the DEA with a list of 29 names of Mozambicans of South Asian origin, which the DEA then wanted the Mozambican authorities to proceed against, failing which it would take action itself. The list included businesspeople involved in property development, construction and hospitality, and with links to the government and the ruling Frelimo party. Pivotal among them is Sartori, the Italian-born, Mozambican-naturalised managing partner of the Kaya Kwanga residential complex and tourist resort in Maputo. Sartori is known to have been close to many powerful and influential people in political and administrative circles: politicians, journalists and members of the security forces among them. Many of them have visited the Kaya Kwanga complex and held meetings there, supposedly free of charge. In fact, when Sartori was arrested on 21 April, there were plans to hold a Frelimo meeting there, which had to be changed at the last minute. He and others are charged with crimes including making and using false documents, money laundering and tax evasion.
