Four alleged perly diewe have been busted after cops found stolen abalone worth R4.5 million rand at an illegal processing facility in Cape Town.
The Hawks’ Economic Protected Resources and South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau teams, together with Crime Intelligence and officials from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, arrested the suspects for allegedly running an abalone processing facility in Killarney Gardens on Monday.
Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said nearly 2 500 wet perlemoen were discovered in buckets at the premises after the team investigated the situation.
“The multi-disciplinary team uncovered an illegal abalone drying facility in Killarney Gardens during a search and seizure operation on Monday, January 2.
The team found 8 993 units weighing 2 475.91kg of wet abalone, kept in plastic buckets, with an estimated street value of more than R4.5 million,” she said.
“Four suspects, aged between 24 and 39, were subsequently arrested and are expected to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court [today] on charges of running an illegally processing facility among others,” Hani added.