Lucapa Image credit: Pinterest
The Angolan police have seized 4,429 diamonds from a French national as part of its operation transparency, according to local media.
State-owned news agency, Angola Press reports that the French national was arrested on July 5 following several tip-offs of alleged illegal sale and purchasing of diamonds at the suspect's home in Lucapa.
Police said the diamonds seized were unevaluated.
They also recovered undisclosed cash, two scales, three magnifying glasses and four diamond shovels.
The Angolan police also seized 131 diamonds last month from illegal miners in the municipalities of Chitato, Capenda Camulemba and Cuango, in Lunda Norte province.
Lunda Norte province borders with the province of Kwango, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The police seized 6,579 carats of rough diamonds last February in the Lunda Norte Province.
Operation transparency was launched in December 2018 to combat illegal diamond mining, illegal immigration, administrative infractions, among other things.
Angola had more than 700 small diamond prospectors prior to operation transparency, which was carried out in 2018 by the ministry of the interior.
Only 260 of them were said to have met the requirements to continue prospecting.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
