MOZAMBIQUE: Mozambique Poaching Enriching North Korea's Leadership

According to a study just released by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, the country is incapable of disrupting the criminal syndicates that have turned it into a major trans-shipment point for rhino horn, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and dagga. The value of illegal drug trade in Mozambique, it claims, is probably greater than all foreign aid combined.

Global Initiative rhino investigator Julian Rademeyer found that the corruption permeating every level of the Mozambique state and the country's leaky ports, airports and borders made it a smuggler's paradise. Of great concern is what he describes as "dodgy diplomats", particularly North Koreans, using this weakness to smuggle illicit products.

Once hailed as a post-civil war success story, Mozambique, he says, is a country in crisis, paralysed by rampant corruption, a weak judiciary, an ineffectual and criminally compromised police force, and powerful criminal syndicates with tentacles reaching into every level of the state.

Many of Mozambique's political elite, according to Global Initiative, have grown fat on the proceeds of the patronage networks that grew.