BENGO: Two shipyards with more than 600,000 liters of fuel were dismantled on Saturday by the National Police in Bengo province.
According to Angola Press News Agency, SIC spokesman Manuel Halaiwa reported that the two closed shipyards in the localities of Panguila and Barra do Dande, municipality of Dande, were used for the storage, smuggling, adulteration, and illegal sale of fuel to the provinces of Luanda and Zaire (Mbanza Kongo and Soyo), as well as to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Manuel Halaiwa stated, “We will continue our action, because there is information of the existence of more shipyards of this nature in these places that are being used for illicit purposes.” He further explained that the SIC, in operational coordination with SIC Bengo and the Port Security Police unit, triggered micro-operations to accompany truck drivers in the logistics supply centers of Sonangol and Sonagalp, and discovered the misappropriation of fuel legally acquired for illicit purposes.
In the period from 8 to 2
8 October this year, the Angolan National Police seized 462,449 liters of fuel along the borders with the republics of Namibia, Zambia, and DRC, according to the multisectoral commission created to combat this phenomenon. These amounts represent a loss of 110 million 859 thousand and 600 Kwanzas for the State coffers.
The border with the Democratic Republic of Congo was the most affected with 96 percent of fuel smuggling cases, followed by Zambia with 3 percent and Namibia with 1 percent of cases. The numbers result from operations carried out at border posts in the provinces of Moxico, Lunda-Norte, Cabinda, Zaire, Cuando-Cubango, Cunene, Cuanza-Norte, Uíge, and Lunda-Sul.