THANKS to the great deal of collaboration between police and customs officials three smugglers have been put behind bars since the beginning of this year, two of them just last week.
A woman who flew from Dubai to Durban on Sunday, 9 February remains in police custody until her next court appearance on 24 February.
On Sunday at about 5.45pm, King Shaka International Airport police officers and customs officials received information that a passenger from Dubai, who was on her way to the King Shaka International Airport, was smuggling drugs.
The officers waited for her to arrive and when the flight landed, they spotted a suspicious-looking 53-year-old woman, who they then decided to search. Customs officials found a whopping 1.16kg of cocaine wrapped in foil strapped around her body. The street value of the recovered cocaine is more than R540 000. She was arrested and charged with possession of drugs.
The following day at about 5pm, the Durban Organised Crime Unit and customs officials made another arrest when they were tipped off that more drugs were being smuggled into Durban from a flight from Sao Paolo.
When the flight arrived, one of the passengers was searched and was found to have 1.5 kilograms of cocaine wrapped in a bag around his body. The street value of the recovered drugs is more than R800 000. The suspect (43) was arrested and charged with possession of drugs.
The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, praised the Durban Organised Crime and customs officials for the breakthrough.
“This was the second major drug bust in two days at the King Shaka International Airport. This shows that we have increased our security measures in preventing drugs from entering our province through the airports,” she said.
ACSA responds
THE Airports Company of South Africa’s (ACSA) spokesman, Colin Naidoo, said there was a great deal of collaboration between the security agencies to nab these drug smugglers.
“Since the airport opened we have had a few drug busts, but for this year there has been about three already,” Naidoo added.
Naidoo said ACSA is pleased with the collective approach adopted by the airport security, SAPS and customs in nailing these smugglers and not allowing these drugs to be peddled on Durban’s streets: “It is a strong message that is being sent that our airport is geared up to catch these smugglers.”
