A massive stash of drugs worth an estimated R90 million went up in smoke on Thursday as Cape Town cops embarked on a destruction exercise.
Excited officers led by national police commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, and provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile, gathered in Delft where they dropped the drugs into a moerse incinerator and let it all burn to ashes.
Daily Voice visited the plant yesterday where cops destroyed 17 boxes of drugs including Mandrax, tik and cocaine.
Masemola explains: “These are drugs confiscated during police operations in the Western and Eastern Cape at roadblocks and tracing operations – Operation Shanela– stop and search and intelligence driven operations.
“They include tik worth over R18 million, cocaine and Mandrax worth R10 million in terms of street value.
“After these drugs are confiscated, they are counted at a local police station and then transferred to the forensics lab where they get tested and if positive, they are kept there until the cases are finalised.”
Masemola says that some of the finalised cases include a case in Vredenburg on the west coast where police seized a truck loaded with R10 million worth of Mandrax tablets.
The nation’s top cop also highlights other convictions and says: “In this case, four suspects were arrested. But one suspect, Hosia Mbuluheni Mathono, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
“In Beaufort West, Mandrax worth R2.5 million was seized and the accused was convicted and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
“In another case in Beaufort West, R18 million worth of tik was seized. The accused were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
“In another case in Swellendam, R4.5 million worth of Mandrax tablets were seized. The accused persons were sentenced to five years imprisonment.”
Masemola says this was the fourth drug destruction process in this financial year – the most recent drug destruction took place in Gauteng in October last year where R800 million worth of drugs were destroyed.
He adds: “In this financial year alone, close to a billion rand worth of drugs have been destroyed.
“In the 2022/2023 financial year, six tons of drugs to the value of R2 billion were destroyed. The police are registering great successes in intercepting drugs.
“It is worth noting that in the past three months, police have seized cocaine worth R200 million in various drug busts at our ports of entry.”