Two fake honey sellers from Lotus River in Cape Town were busted in a sting operation by cops on Wednesday.
Grassy Park Police seized stock worth nearly R40 000.
The two Egyptian nationals were bist when the large contingent of the SAPS Anti-Economical Unit assisted by Law Enforcement and Metro Police arrived at their manufacturing plants in Fifth Avenue and Bic Road.
Grassy Park SAPS commander, Colonel Dawood Laing, said the bust was a bittersweet ending to the thriving business as they were fooling people across the Cape Flats by selling sugar syrup posing as honey.
“The unit got a tip-off and searched the two properties,” Laing says.
“They found that both of these people, male and female, are from Egypt and were manufacturing fake honey and bottling it and selling it for R25 a bottle.
“During the raids more than 20 cop cars arrived and blocked the properties off shortly after 7am.”
He says once inside, cops found crates of the ‘honey’ which even had labels on them as well as pots, gas burners and other equipment used to make the products.
“It is not even clear where they got the labels or if those labels belong to a legitimate company.
“They were manufacturing it in their homes and using things like sugar to make a syrup and selling it as honey.
“At this stage it is also not clear if the male and female are linked to each other but as the investigation unravels more will become clearer.”
The duo will appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of manufacturing a counterfeit product.
Laing warns that the suspects may have jeopardised the health of their customers who believed they were going for a healthier alternative.
“The problem is people use honey as a healthier alternative to sugar. Now these people have been fooling people with this fake product.
“Imagine you are a diabetic and think you are drinking honey but you just consumed 50 teaspoons of sugar.”