Cape Town - Ten suspects, including their alleged ringleader, will appear at the Bellville and Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday facing charges of contravening the Marine Living Resources Act.
The suspects, aged between 26 and 56, were in possession of 22 010 units of dried abalone abalone worth almost R4 million, the Hawks said.
Two cars and an undisclosed amount of money was confiscated.
Hawks provincial spokesperson Lloyd Ramovha said the Hawks carried out several raids at six different private dwellings around Durbanville, Plattekloof, West Beach, Atlantic Beach, Table View and Parklands.
Ramovha said the premises were linked to the ring leader.
He said the properties were under surveillance by the Hawks for a while, following suspicion of illegal activities.
Hawks provincial acting head Mzwandile Ndlovu praised the investigation team for their efforts.
“The onslaught on syndicates that continue to perpetrate abalone smuggling and related transnational crimes is on. We shall not slack in carrying out our constitutional mandate which also embraces protecting our environment. Perhaps it is time perpetrators gather that they are actually swimming against the tide”, he said.
Earlier this month, a joint operation between the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), police as well as customs officials led to increased seizure and confiscation of poached abalone.
These raids took place in the Milnerton and Montague Gardens areas and yielded a combined total of 27 182 dried as well as 13 837 wet abalone.
Further investigations led to the discovery of a 13 meter container at the Cape Town harbor that had already been cleared for export.
The container contained pellets with sealed boxes containing illegally harvested abalone, weighing 9.4 tons of wet abalone and 3.3 tons of dried abalone with the estimated value of the confiscated abalone worth R30m.