Police seize millions of rands worth of drugs in nationwide crackdown
Millions of rands worth of Mandrax, cocaine and dagga were confiscated during coordinated police operations across South Africa.
Last week, South African police made significant arrests and seizures in their ongoing battle against the illegal drug trade. National spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Mukhathi reported that 3,385 suspects were apprehended for drug possession, while 318 suspects were arrested for drug trafficking. A particularly large Mandrax laboratory was dismantled in Pretoria, capable of producing 800,000 tablets daily and yielding 110 million rand in seized drugs. A joint operation involving several law enforcement agencies uncovered the facility.
The Hawks and other agencies received a tip-off about the Pretoria lab, which was operated on a smallholding. During the operation, two foreign nationals were arrested in Erasmia for allegedly manufacturing illicit drugs. Additionally, another suspected drug laboratory was found in Tshwane, where suspects were preparing to manufacture crystal meth.
Beyond Pretoria, police conducted bylaw operations in Cullinan and Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria, arresting 13 undocumented foreign nationals for drug possession. In Mpumalanga, a dagga bust resulted in the seizure of 336kg of compressed dagga, valued at 2 million rand, following a high-speed chase in Mbombela. Earlier, 21 bags of dagga were found in a Volkswagen Golf, leading to the confiscation of 1 million rand worth of the drug.
In the Western Cape, a major operation intercepted a vehicle on the N1 highway, seizing 57,000 Mandrax tablets and 5kg of cocaine, worth a total of 5.8 million rand. Another Volvo truck transporting 2 million rand worth of Mandrax was stopped in Kraaifontein, with its driver being arrested.
Written by urgent.news from The Citizen's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
