Economics

Heroin Is One of Biggest Mozambique Exports, Researchers Say

  • As much as $800 million of the drug passes through annually
  • Most of the heroin is bound for Europe via South Africa

Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Mozambique boasts vast coal, ruby and gas deposits, but one of the southeast African nation’s biggest exports may be something more sinister: heroin.

As much as $800 million worth of the narcotic is shipped annually from its beaches to neighboring countries and to Europe. That’s according to a research paper by Enact, a European Union-funded initiative to mitigate the impact of transnational organized crime, and a related working paper by Joseph Hanlon, visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science.