KZN cops to test a million straws
More than a million straws will be tested for heroin by police forensic laboratories before a trial against 19 men can proceed, the Pinetown Magistrate's Court heard on Thursday.
Prosecutor Khumbu Shazi, who was seeking an adjournment in the matter, said that unlike heroin powder from which a sample could be taken and analysed, each of the 1,070,000 sealed straws would need to be opened and the contents analysed.
The straws were part of a drug haul police seized from a house in Durban's upmarket western suburb of Gillits when they arrested the men on November 28.
At the time of the arrests, Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale said the street value of the assumed heroin straws, Mandrax tablets, and heroin powder was estimated at R41 million.
The matter was postponed to May 8.
-Sapa