Durban - Another drug lab has been uncovered in a luxury home in an upmarket Durban suburb - this time La Lucia.
A house in Ballito was also raided by the Hawks at the weekend, but no drugs were found. Both properties are believed to be part of the Chatsworth drug network that was uncovered earlier this month.
Twenty-four people were to appear in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of drug possession.
They were arrested at the house in Forest Hills Drive, La Lucia, with about R500 000 worth of heroin on Saturday.
Two South African women, a South African man and the rest from Burundi, Tanzania and Malawi, were charged.
The KZN Hawks raided the double storey home and found drugs packaged in bundles ready for distribution. Police seized three industrial sealers, small cups containing heroin, four hand-held sealers and bales of plastic packets used as straws.
In the raid on the Sandra Place house in Ballito,
police found packets of green straws. These were sealed on one side. Police seized six hand-held sealers. The six women and a man on the property were not charged. Police narcotics sniffer dogs combed the property for any drugs, but came up with nothing. Both homes had high walls, electric fences and were rented from agents.
Last Wednesday, 10 people were arrested in a luxury flat in the Point area. Police had confiscated a large volume of heroin, some already packed in 6 000 straws.
In a separate bust the week before, police seized R7 million worth of heroin in Ramsgate on the South Coast. Ten people were arrested.
Police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, said the bust was the result of months of intense investigation by the Hawks.
The houses were used as processing and packaging clandestine laboratories, he said.
When the Hawks and the National Intervention Unit raided the Ramsgate house, they discovered 120 000 packed straws of heroin and 8kg of unpacked heroin estimated to be worth more than R7 million.
Sam Pillay, the chairman of the Anti Drug Forum in Chatsworth, was “thrilled” that the drug supply houses were now out of operation.
“It’s something we’ve been talking about for years. The targeting and arresting of drug dealers, while helpful, does nothing to solve the problem in the long term. There is always someone ready to take the dealer’s place,” he said.
But, he said, cutting off the source was a “brilliant way” to make a difference on the streets.
“We applaud the work of our dedicated police. Cutting off supply to the dealers is saving lives.”
He said the next step would be securing convictions of those arrested.
“The arrests are great, but if these people are not put away, there’s no point. Law enforcement, at all levels, including the courts, needs to work together to put these people away.”
Since 2013, police have been unravelling a web of drug houses where drugs are manufactured, packaged and distributed. The network appeared to be managed from Chatsworth. The houses, spread across KwaZulu-Natal, were all similar - in quiet, upmarket suburbs behind high walls. - Additional reporting by Kamcilla Pillay
Daily News