"So far, 28 individuals have been detained for questioning, and the investigation continues, awaiting resolution", reads the statement released today by the operator, stating that its Forensic Fraud team has dismantled this "network of account registration agents and fraudulent sale" of cards in the province of Nampula. "The operation was the result of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing monitoring and investigation activities carried out by Vodafone M-Pesa", it adds. The operator, which holds the largest digital wallet in the country - whose transactions work only with the use of mobile phones and their respective SIM card - said that in February it detected "the existence of a significant number of accounts opened by tampering with identification documents in High-Risk Zones (Northern Region)", which was followed by a "thorough investigation process that allowed the identification of registration agents involved in fraudulent activities". "The fraud was carried out through the use of a single identification document by several agents, who proceeded to create several registrations based on that same document", it is also explained. It also stated that "the neighborhoods of Namicopo and Carrupeia, in the city of Nampula, were identified as the main foci of this illicit practice". After the identification of those involved, the case was forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) of the province of Nampula, "where an extended field operation was launched, focused on individuals with the highest number of registrations and the highest commissions, aiming to uncover the source of the fraud". The Mozambican authorities have classified the Electronic Money Institutions (IME) sector, which operates through mobile telecommunications operators, as having a "high" threat level in terrorist financing, according to a government report released in March by Lusa. "The threat level of the electronic money sector for terrorist financing in the country is high", reads the National Terrorism Financing Risk Assessment Report. The document also acknowledges an "excessive movement of funds to areas of active terrorist threat using electronic money institutions" operating in Mozambique, noting that it is "concentrated in rural areas with limited access to the national banking network". "For this reason, there is a preference for the use of electronic money institutions, given the ease of use of the service and the rapid movement of funds that it provides. These factors combined precipitate and make the abuse of this sector by terrorist sympathizers appealing. Given the existence of population clusters that reside and develop social, commercial, and other activities in regions with an active terrorist threat, it is possible for terrorists and terrorist sympathizers to abuse the services of electronic money institutions to move funds", it reads. In February, Lusa reported that the number of IME agents in Mozambique, ensuring transfers, purchases, withdrawals, and deposits through mobile telecommunications operators, increased by 10.5% in three months, to 224,704 in December, already covering all 154 districts of the country. "At the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, in the province of Cabo Delgado, particularly in rural areas, transactions were mostly made in cash and using mobile wallets (electronic money), given the absence of banks operating in these areas, and the terrorists had in this system, given the weak control, the preferred mechanism for moving funds channeled by family members, friends, sympathizers, and others and later withdrawn from agents by people with ties of friendship who later delivered the cash for their terrorist activities", the report points out. Read Also: Child marriage in Mozambique is a concern despite the change in the law (Portuguese version)