155kg of drugs seized at border
A Mozambican national appeared in the Komatipoort Magistrate's Court yesterday after he was arrested at the Lebombo Border Post on Tuesday with, allegedly, over 155 kilograms of drugs in his bakkie.
According to police, at around 08:00 on Tuesday morning, May 11, SARS custom officers and SAPS members stationed at the border were doing routine inspections of vehicles entering South Africa.
Bernardo Cumbe (63) was travelling in a Toyota bakkie with a canopy when he was stopped and searched, whereupon bags of narcotics were allegedly found hidden beneath charcoal.
“They were not acting on intelligence or information received, they were simply doing what they do every day,” said Brig Leonard Hlathi, provincial spokesperson for the SAPS.
The drugs are suspected to be heroin and crystal meth. Police forensics is still processing the seized goods.
Over 136 kilograms of suspected heroin and 19 kilograms of suspected crystal meth were allegedly found in the suspect’s vehicle. The combined value of the confiscated narcotics is more than R32 million.
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R33 000 in cash was also allegedly found in the suspect’s possession. “Most times when we find drugs we also find large sums of money which is mostly just to pay bribes to officials to look the other way,” said Memory Ndou, the SARS senior manager at Lebombo .
Officials on the scene said that though drugs in this quantity were rare, they often found drugs coming into the country from Mozambique.
According to a study by the United Nations, most heroin in South Africa comes from Asia via Mozambique.
The Hawks have taken over the case. Cumbe has been charged with possession of drugs. His case has been postponed to Tuesday May 18 for bail application.
