Devils Below

🌟Secret Agents and Diamonds in the Heart of Africa [ Secret Agents ] 📍 We have already written about the military operation "No Return" and tragic expulsion of artisanal miners from the Marange diamond field by the Zimbabwean authorities. This is a continuation of the same story, but now about how diamond sales covertly financed Zimbabwe's security services. 🛑 Having expulsed the miners, the Zimbabwean government transferred Marange diamonds to a small group of companies. Each was set up by the state itself, usually in partnership with a private investor. 💥 In total, 6 such companies were created. Although on paper they looked like standard concessions, international muckrakers suggest that in reality they served the interests of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and Zimbabwe’s military-industrial complex. 🫥 One of these companies was Kusena Diamonds, allegedly created and partially managed by members of the CIO’s economic department. The CIO itself was often described as highly partisan and helping the ruling ZANU-PF hold power. The agency could use diamond revenues as an additional source of funding implying no public accountability. 🚗 Two other companies, Anjin and Jinan (yes, they simply rearranged the syllables), were 50% genuinely owned by Chinese investors. In practice, they operated as a single entity, with 40% of Anjin — the larger of the two — belonging to Zimbabwe Defence Industries, the state arms manufacturer. After US sanctions in 2005, it went into survival mode and began dabbling in anything it could, from banana plantations to diamond mining. 🇺🇸 In this sense, Zimbabwe is not unique. Using illicit or opaque sources of financing is a favorite pastime of intelligence services everywhere, even — especially — in the United States. The Zimbabwean case, however, illustrates a typical local pattern, with off-budget revenues flowing from mineral extraction rather than from drug or arms trafficking, as was the case in the American Iran–Contra scandal. #SecretAgents ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow