Police tracking Brazil drug ship ‘for weeks’
KZN's police chief says they'd been tracking the movement of a ship from Brazil for weeks before Monday’s massive drug bust in Durban.
Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's confirmed that cocaine, with a street value of more than R80 million, was seized from a warehouse on South Coast Road near the Bluff.
Police searched approximately seven shipping containers that were lowered and placed side-by-side by a crane.
They discovered the drugs, weighing over 170 kilos, concealed in eight blue and yellow kidney bean bags marked with special stickers.
“They were packed on top of the container, so I guess it's meant to be easy for the owners of the drugs when the containers open, to quickly take the drugs out,” Mkhwanazi said.
He added that they were keeping a close watch on the ship transporting the container until Saturday when it docked at Durban Harbour.
It was destined for Johannesburg.
“The ship did not sail directly from Brazil coming to South Africa, it sailed in the beginning of November and it went to another foreign country and from there it came to South Africa.”
The police chief says the search isn't over.
"It's a total of 10 containers. Thus far, there's one container where these drugs come from, so that's why we are here."
Investigations are underway to find the traffickers.
KZN Provincial Commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, has arrived at the scene where an estimated R86.5 million rands was recovered. pic.twitter.com/M4A46zdg3w
— ECR_Newswatch (@ECR_Newswatch) December 2, 2024
