A 35-year-old man was arrested in Zoetenal Street in Cape Town on Saturday evening after a police hunch led to a drug bust worth around R5 million.
Members of the City’s Operation Lockdown III were busy with other crime prevention duties in Ruyterwacht on the evening of September 28 when they noticed a male standing next to a white Chevrolet Optra. He appeared nervous after spotting the police vehicles.
The members searched him and found drugs in his possession, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. After deciding to search the house he was standing near, Police found drugs with an estimated value of R5 million.
This included 87,058 mandrax tablets, five large sachets of Crystal meth, two sizeable cocaine rocks and a big bag containing unknown white tablets.
The suspect is due to appear in the Goodwood Magistrates’ Court after he has been charged.
This comes a week after a 30-year-old Namibian woman was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng after x-rays revealed she was carrying 68 drug bullets in her stomach, with an estimated weight of 850g.
The SA Police Service (SAPS) and customs officials were acting on a tip-off that she was attempting to smuggle drugs on a flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“The team immediately intercepted the drug mule as she was making her way through immigration. She was immediately arrested, taken to a local hospital where a medical X-ray confirmed and detected foreign objects in her stomach,” said national police spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe.
This was the tenth drug smuggler arrested at Joburg’s international airport in a space of just two months.
IOL