The massive drug bust was made at the Durban Harbour on Monday. Photo: Saps
As police continue to clamp down on the trafficking of drugs into South Africa, officers have seized cocaine worth R151 million in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
The massive drug bust was made at the Durban Harbour on Monday.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the men and women in blue are determined to disrupt and dislodge the work of international organised crime syndicates involved in the drug trade.
“Members were following up on intelligence and monitored a container that was on a vessel from Brazil. A multidisciplinary team inspected the container at a cold storage facility and found 433 blocks of cocaine disguised in meat boxes.
“No arrests have been made and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) has taken over the investigation,” Mathe said.
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Meanwhile, the National Commissioner of the Saps, General Fannie Masemola met with the Police Chief of the Brazilian Federal Police, Andrei Passos Rodrigues on the sidelines of the Interpol Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Vienna this past week.
Masemola discussed the influx of drugs into SA from their ports.
“A decision was made to enhance the level of cooperation which has already seen great successes in the sharing of information on drugs and other criminal activities as well as countering international crime syndicates,” Mathe said.
This is the third massive drug bust in two months at the Durban harbour. In October, the same team seized cocaine worth R150 million.
Mathe said they tracked a container in which 228 blocks of cocaine were also found to be concealed as meat boxes, at the Dube Trade Port.
The drug bust followed the seizure of a large amount of cocaine worth about R70 million found aboard a vessel from Brazil at the harbour during the same month.
Police revealed that the shipment of 200 blocks of raw cocaine was stashed inside 20-litre paint buckets and headed to an unknown location in Gauteng.
ALSO READ: Cops seize cocaine worth R48m in Western Cape
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