‘SA wide open to drug traffickers’

Cape Town - 130711 - Gangsterism is rife on the Cape Flats with reports of regular shootings on a daily basis, sometimes even hourly. Pictured are police taking stock of goods they confiscated earlier in the day. They confiscated cell phones, drugs, a fake gun, a 7.65 Beretta and money. Reporter: Zodidi Dano PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID RITCHIE

Cape Town - 130711 - Gangsterism is rife on the Cape Flats with reports of regular shootings on a daily basis, sometimes even hourly. Pictured are police taking stock of goods they confiscated earlier in the day. They confiscated cell phones, drugs, a fake gun, a 7.65 Beretta and money. Reporter: Zodidi Dano PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID RITCHIE

Published Sep 25, 2013

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Durban - Poor surveillance of the country’s porous borders and private landing strips has left South Africa vulnerable to drug trafficking.

This was the stern warning from an Interpol colonel on Tuesday as he stressed the need for the country to help fight drug trafficking in southern Africa by better controlling what enters and exits the country.

Interpol’s Colonel Deven Naicker said unsecured borders, along with other factors, fuelled the drug trade, and ultimately other crime.

Other factors which made the country a fertile ground for drug trafficking included its well-developed infrastructure, modern international telecommunications and banking system, and the corruption which has contaminated the criminal justice system.

“Drug trafficking operates within a very intricate network over various countries. We have put structures in place to make sure we dissolve this network and get to the heart of the trafficking,” Naicker said.

He was addressing delegates at an International Association of Women Police training conference at Durban International Convention Centre, which entered its third day on Tuesday.

Naicker said there was a connection between drugs and crime.

“Sixty percent of the people we have arrested in the past admitted to have taken some form of drug before committing a crime.”

He claimed 100 percent of men arrested agreed that drugs had acted as a catalyst to their committing crimes.

He said sugars, whoonga and nyaope were top among the drugs stimulating crime, and Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan were the leading producers of these drugs in the world.

“This group of drugs is often transported from those countries into countries like Angola and Mozambique via dhows from the coast, and then they are moved inland and to other countries,” he said.

Naicker said South Africa was one of the leading countries on the continent for clandestine drug laboratories.

“In South Africa alone we have shut down eight meth labs, 11 cannabis labs, eight crystal meth labs, and one GHB lab in recent times,” he said.

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