A meticulous police operation at Durban Harbour led to a staggering R70 million cocaine bust.
Durban Harbour hosts breakthrough R70 million cocaine bust
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The breakthrough emerged from an operation carried out on a shipping container aboard the vessel NileDutchBreda, which had travelled from Brazil to South Africa via Durban Harbour.
Upon inspection, authorities comprised of teams from SAPS’s Crime Intelligence Unit and the Hawks discovered 200 bricks of cocaine, weighing around 200 kilograms, ingeniously concealed within paint drums.
This inventive method of smuggling caught the attention of the police, who meticulously sifted through the drums to uncover the stash.
READ MORE – R1.5m cocaine shipment intercepted at OR Tambo International Airport
However, among the hundreds of paint drums on the scene, only a select few contained the raw cocaine, revealing a high degree of sophistication in the illicit endeavour.
UN report names South Africa as key cocaine ‘transit’ route
Police National Commissioner Fanie Masemola shed light on the operation, stating,
“The destination looks like it was Gauteng; well, it might carry the address of Gauteng without necessarily going there. We are busy still with the investigation to find the owners of this paint because there is paperwork and everything.”
The apparent destination hints at an organised network possibly extending beyond provincial borders.
ALSO READ – Brazilian drug smuggler caught with R2m cocaine at OR Tambo Airport
As of now, no arrests have been made, but the investigation is ongoing as authorities delve deeper to unravel the identities of those behind this elaborate smuggling operation.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) 2023 Global Cocaine Report aligns with this incident, outlining an uptick in maritime drug trafficking towards South Africa since the onset of the pandemic.
The report further elucidates that a significant portion of these narcotics likely finds its way to other countries, underscoring South Africa’s concerning position as a transit country in the global drug trade.