Dead kidnapping kingpin’s modus operandi made clear

MILLION-DOLLAR MAN

- JONISAYI MAROMO

THE Daily News can exclusively reveal that Antonio Francisco Macamamo, better known by his alias Dollar Man or just Dollar, lived up to his nicknames in ways that terrified families across southern Africa.

He was one of Mozambique’s most wanted criminals, a man whose reputation for demanding ransoms in United States dollars became the mark of a shadowy career in transnational organised crime.

Macamamo was shot dead in Kempton Park, Gauteng province, on Wednesday evening during a police operation that also freed a kidnapped Indian businessman being held in Alexandra. The Mozambican’s death has shone a spotlight on one of the most elusive figures in the region's underworld.

In an interview with IOL, a high-placed source in Maputo described Macamamo as “one of the most wanted people by the criminal investigation police and identified as a top kidnapper.