Mozambican police have arrested four Thai citizens who were trying to smuggle rubies out of the country

Mozambican police have arrested four Thai citizens who were trying to smuggle rubies out of the country, reports Monday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais".
The four were detained on Saturday at the airport in the northern city of Pemba. According to the police they were in possession of over 30 kilos of rubies valued at more than 120 million US dollars.Rubies vary enormously in price depending on their quality. High quality stones can sell at over 5,000 US dollars a carat. One carat equals 200 milligrams, and so 30 kilos of rubies is an enormous 150,000 carats. If the weight given by the police is accurate, 120 million dollars is not an entirely fantastic estimate of the value.According to the police, the four Thais were catching a Mozambique Airlines (LAM) flight from Pemba to Nairobi, and would then make their way back to Thailand."O Pais" adds that a Mozambican national was recently caught red-handed at the casino in the Nautilus hotel in Pemba trying to sell five kilos of rubies to Thai purchasers. Those rubies, plus the ones seized at the airport, now revert to the Mozambican state.The paper cites anonymous sources who claim that members of the state security service, SISE, have been keeping a close eye on the Thais since they arrived in Pemba about a week ago.The rubies come from the mines at Namanhumbir, in Montepuez district, some 200 kilometres west of Pemba.
Meanwhile, the police in the central province of Zambezia have arrested 29 Somali citizens (27 men and two women) who had entered the country illegally.According to the police, the group came by boat down the east African coast and disembarked near the mouth of the Rovuma river in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. They then made their way through Nampula province into Zambezia, where they were arrested in Ile district on 30 March.They were traveling in two vehicles, driven by Mozambicans - one of whom was a policeman named as Afonso Marrula.The drivers claimed they had no idea the group were illegal immigrants. They were just giving them a lift from Nampula to Zambezia, because they took pity on them when they saw them at the side of the road, trying to flag down lifts. They claimed they had received no money from the Somalis.The police believe that this group of Somalis, like many others before them, were simply using Mozambique as a corridor, and that their final destination was South Africa.