Cocaine with an estimated street value of R400-million has been seized along the N1 highway in Centurion, Gauteng. According to police spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale, a 39-year-old man stored the drugs in a boat, towed by his vehicle.
She says police intercepted the vehicle, confiscated the drugs and arrested the suspect.
“Following an intelligence-driven operation, by the members of Hawks, crime intelligence head office, where information was followed and the vehicle was taken off the road on the N1 between Botha Avenue and the R21 off-ramp. It was an 18-foot boat that was being hauled by a Toyota bakkie that the suspect was driving. The drugs suspected to be cocaine with an estimated street value of R400-million.”
Western Cape bust
In March, Western Cape police seized cocaine on a fishing vessel off the coast of Saldanha Bay worth more than half a billion rand.
Western Cape police spokesperson on the drug bust:
Ten people, including four Bulgarians and six others from Myanmar, were arrested.
Cannabis, cocaine seized in Niger and South Africa drug busts
In May, drugs with a street value of nearly €100 million (euros) were seized in operations in Africa and the Middle East, Interpol said.
The International Criminal Police Organisation worked with customs and police officials from 41 countries for two operations in March and April that coordinated enforcement action at borders and other hotspots.
In Niger, authorities seized 17 tonnes of cannabis resin, worth around €31 million ($37 million), from warehouses in the capital Niamey. The drugs, destined for Libya, represent the largest bust in the West African country’s history, Interpol said in a statement.
In South Africa, the police seized 973 cocaine bricks worth more than R550 million ( €32 million) from a fishing vessel and arrested 10 people, Interpol said. The police said the haul was one of South Africa’s largest.
Some 287 people were arrested in those operations and other ones with smaller hauls over the two months, Interpol said.
