Major drug bust in Durban: Hawks seize R350,000 in cannabis and narcotics
Image: Supplied
A 43-year-old suspect is expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate's Court on Friday, after a clandestine cannabis laboratory was dismantled during a high-impact operation near Morningside, Durban.
The suspect was arrested on Thursday during a joint operation between members of the Hawks' Port Shepstone Serious Organised Crime Investigation unit, the Durban Metro Police Drug Team, the Metro K9 Unit, Durban Flying Squad, and the eThekwini Infrastructure Task Team.
Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Simphiwe Mhlongo says police acted on intelligence that pointed to an indoor cannabis cultivation setup in the area.
'A disruptive operation was swiftly conducted, and they proceeded to the said building,' he confirmed.
'During the search, police found indoor cannabis plants, ecstasy tablets, crack cocaine, chemicals and equipment to the street value of approximately R350 000.00,' Mhlongo added.
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Next
Stay
Close ✕
The suspect was arrested on the spot and charged with dealing in drugs and cannabis.
KwaZulu-Natal Hawks Provincial Head, Major General (Dr) Lesetja Senona, commended the swift action and praised the members for the good work.
IOL News
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Eyewitness News
an hour ago
- Eyewitness News
Joshlin Smith trial: Lourencia Lombaard, 2 co-accused apply for leave to appeal conviction, sentences
CAPE TOWN – A mother and two others convicted of selling her daughter are applying for leave to appeal their convictions and sentences. Kelly Smith, her boyfriend, Jacquen Appollis and his friend Steveno van Rhyn were handed life sentences for human trafficking in May. This is after the court accepted the State's version, that then six-year-old Joshlin Smith was sold to a sangoma in Saldanha Bay in February last year. ALSO READ: Joshlin Smith: Former accused-turned-State witness Lourencia Lombaard returned to the dock The girl is still missing. The matter was adjourned for the day and continues in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday. Meanwhile, former accused-turned-State witness, Lourencia Lombaard, was also in court to hear the argument around whether she should be granted indemnity. Lombaard had testified to witnessing Smith sell the child for R20,000 in February 2024. The National Prosecuting Authority's Eric Ntabazalila explained: 'We can confirm that arguments began this morning in the application for leave to appeal involving the accused in the Joshlin Smith matter, as well as the Section 204 witness issue involving Ms Lourencia Lombaard. The case has been postponed to tomorrow morning [Wednesday] and judgement is expected to be delivered tomorrow morning on both matters."
TimesLIVE
an hour ago
- TimesLIVE
Defensor Security Company and two directors found guilty of R384m fraud
The Northern Cape high court on Monday found two directors of Defensor Security Services guilty of fraud. The court also found Claudius Gerald Peterson, Gert Renier van Rooyen and their company guilty of contravening the Public Finance Management Act and the Private Security Industry Regulation Act (PSIRA). Peterson, Van Rooyen and Defensor were charged together with Steven Jonkers, the former head of the department of health in the Northern Cape, in 2020. Jonkers was acquitted of all charges. Hawks spokesperson Lt-Col Tebogo Thebe said Jonkers, now deputy director-general in another provincial department, allegedly irregularly awarded a tender to Defensor Electronic Security Systems for security services to the department between August and October 2017. The tender's value was initially R224m but later escalated to more than R384m. 'The directors submitted fraudulent documents to gain an unfair advantage over others to be awarded the tender,' Thebe said. The case was reported to the Hawks' serious corruption investigators in December 2017 and arrests were made in 2020. Northern Cape Hawks head Maj-Gen Stephen Mabuela welcome the convictions. 'The wheels of justice may have turned slowly in this matter, but this conviction offers us hope. My appreciation goes to both the investigating and prosecutorial teams for their hard work,' Mabuela said.
IOL News
2 hours ago
- IOL News
The handling of the Joshlin Smith trial came under a fierce attack from the defence
The Western Cape High Court heard a plea for indemnity from Lourentia Lombaard's lawyer in the Joshlin Smith trial. The lawyer for Lombaard, former accused turned State witness, Advocate Eben van Tonder, urged the Western Cape High Court to exempt his client from any punishment. Image: Armand Hough / Independent Media The appeal of the convicted kidnappers in the Joshlin Smith case exploded into a fierce attack on the Western Cape High Court's handling of the trial, with defence lawyers accusing the State of trampling constitutional rights, hiding crucial evidence, and relying on coerced confessions. Advocate Nobahle Mkabayi, who represents Steveno 'Steffie' van Rhyn, came out swinging, telling the bench her client was unlawfully detained for more than 48 hours before his first court appearance on March 7, 2024, a direct breach of his rights. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ 'This case was compromised from the start,' she said. 'We appeared in court on 31 January 2021 bare-handed and clueless, without the contents of the docket. The State knew the attorneys, but details were never furnished before the pre-trial.' the defence received the docket only two weeks before the trial, and even then, it was incomplete. 'We had to climb the mountain of fetching the contents ourselves. It is unconstitutional to shift that duty to the defence,' she said, adding that the limited preparation time made it impossible to consult witnesses, strategise, or fully assess video evidence. Mkabayi accused the police of arresting her client without a warrant and subjecting him to torture. the first doctor to examine him did not rule out that his injuries were consistent with abuse, she said. 'Yet Captain Philip Seekoei still took a confession from him. Any statement from a tortured person is inadmissible, a bleeding man has no will,' she told the court. She said officers failed to inform her client of his rights to remain silent, to legal representation, and not to incriminate himself. She also blasted the trial court for failing to make a clear ruling on the admissibility of the confession after a trial-within-a-trial. 'This confession was not made freely or voluntarily. Suffocation was used,' she said. Moments later, Mkabayi told the court she was unwell, and proceedings paused. Advocate Fanie Harmse, representing Jacquen 'Boeta' Appollis, then aimed at the credibility of the State's star witness, Section 204 accomplice Lourentia 'Renz' Lombaard. He said even she testified that Appollis wanted nothing to do with the alleged plot to sell Joshlin. Harmse questioned why another alleged suspect, Phumza 'Maka Lima' Sigaqa, was never charged despite evidence suggesting Joshlin may have been taken to her house. He argued Appollis's statement to police was coerced, citing a video showing him limping and medical notes from Sergeant Fortuin recording fresh injuries on March 6, 2024. 'Those injuries cannot be wished away,' he said. In the same proceedings, Advocate Eben van Tonder, representing Lombaard, defended her credibility and argued that she had testified truthfully throughout the trial. Van Tonder noted that the Western Cape High Court had found 'sufficient corroboration for the reliability' of Lombaard's testimony, supported by both direct and circumstantial evidence. He stressed that, despite defence claims that she was unreliable, the court appeared to have relied on her account when reaching its judgment. Taking the 'totality of the evidence and surrounding circumstances' into account, Van Tonder said the witness had been honest. He added that she had made 'huge personal sacrifices' in her life, uprooting herself and her children to enter witness protection. 'She has much to lose,' Van Tonder argued. 'She knows her possible immunity from prosecution will be jeopardised if she is dishonest to the court. This in itself incentivised her to be truthful.' He submitted that she qualified for full immunity under Section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act on all counts in the indictment and any competent verdicts arising from it. Joshlin vanished from her Middelpos home in Saldanha Bay on February 19, 2024. Her mother, Racquel 'Kelly' Smith, Appollis, and Van Rhyn were later convicted of kidnapping and human trafficking, each receiving life sentences. The appeal continues on Wednesday morning.
