Durban – No arrests have been made after the Hawks seized cocaine worth more than R16 million in Durban earlier this week.
Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said that on Monday, Hawks members from the Durban Serious Organised Crime Investigation unit, Durban harbour detectives and Berea police station officers were called out to a warehouse in Clairwood where they were shown suspicious parcels concealed in cargo.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that it was cocaine. A further search was conducted and more bricks of cocaine were found. The street value of the seized cocaine is approximately R16.8 million,” Mhlongo said.
The seizure came a day before Hawks head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya was to hold a media briefing to report on the Hawks’ progress in the fight against national priority crimes in the second quarter of the year.
On Tuesday, Lebeya said that the Hawks had arrested 827 suspects who appeared in courts across the country. During the same period, 217 suspects were convicted and sentenced.
“The majority of arrests emanate from Serious Organised Crime Investigation with a total of 524 arrests. The Serious Commercial Crime Investigation component followed with 206 arrests, while Serious Corruption Investigation secured a total of 97 arrests which makes up our quarterly total of 827 for national priority offences.”
“Fraud cases, which are investigated by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team, recorded the highest number of arrests overall among other commodities. They secured 222 arrests across all provinces,” Lebeya said.
This was followed by cases involving precious metals and diamonds (illegal mining activities) with 126 arrests. In cases involving non-ferrous metal, 97 people were arrested. “(The latter) includes copper theft, railway line and other essential infrastructure that aids the economic activities in the country,” he said.
Lebeya said that most of the convictions stemmed from Serious Organised Crime with 128 suspects convicted and sentenced. The Serious Commercial Crime component followed with 74 convictions, while Serious Corruption had a total of 15 suspects convicted and sentenced for the period under review.
Daily News