Suspects face abalone-related charges
A Zimbabwean and a Chinese national, arrested in Gordon’s Bay at the weekend, appeared in the Strand District Court on Monday, for alleged unlawful possession of abalone.
The abalone was worth an estimated street value of R1,5 million.
The Zimbabwean, Olbert Dhilwayo, 36, and Chinese national Ye Hong Huang, 40, appeared before magistrate Karen Scheepers.
At the request of prosecutor Doreen van Zyl, the magistrate ordered that the men remain in custody until Friday.
This will give the prosecuting authorities time to check their backgrounds, in order to decide whether to release the men on bail, or to oppose their release.
The men are likely to launch a bail application on Friday.
Police patrolling farms in Gordon’s Bay on Saturday received information about chest freezers that had been delivered at an address in the vicinity.
They swooped about 10.30am on premises in Lumber Jack’s smallholdings, Gordon’s Bay, where they found an illegal abalone processing facility.
In the courtyard, they found a large steel cooking pot, a chest freezer containing a bag of shucked abalone, a washing area, gas cylinders and bags of salt.
Inside, were two fully equipped drying rooms containing shelves stacked with abalone.
In another room, they found five crates filled with dried abalone, another chest freezer and two scales.
Officials from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries were summoned to the scene, and the abalone was counted.
They counted 81 units of freshly shucked abalone, and 13 160 units of dried abalone, with an estimated street value of R1.5 million.
They appear in court again on November 20.