Cape Town - A woman has been arrested and drugs worth hundreds of thousands of rand were confiscated when passenger buses were searched in two separate incidents in the Plettenberg Bay area in the Western Cape, near the Eastern Cape border, the South African Police Service said.
"Concerted efforts to eradicate drug trafficking at major entry points into the Western Cape once again yielded positive results with the confiscation of drugs with an estimated street value of about R570 000 at the Tsitsikamma Tollgate near Plettenberg Bay on Friday, 09 October at about 03:20," Western Cape SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Christopher Spies said in a statement.
Officers attached to the SAPS Eden policing cluster visible policing (VisPol) unit and Tsitsikamma K9 were strategically deployed at a roadblock along the N2 highway when they stopped a passenger bus that was en-route to Cape Town, he said.
Upon searching the vehicle they found a suspicious suitcase in the luggage compartment of the bus. The suitcase was positively linked to a passenger that apparently boarded the bus in Port Elizabeth earlier.
A further search resulted in the discovery of 3955 Mandrax tablets and two plastic bags containing tik (crystal methamphetamine) with an estimated street value of R310 000 in the suitcase.
The officers arrested a 31-year-old woman on a charge of dealing in drugs. She was held in custody and would appear in court after she had been charged. It was believed that the drugs were destined for delivery in Cape Town.
In an unrelated incident on October 6, police also confiscated 2.57kg of dagga with an estimated street value of R25 000 during a search of a passenger bus on the N2 near Plettenberg Bay. The drugs could not be linked to a passenger at the time of the discovery, Spies said.
Western Cape police management commended the police officers for their vigilance and commitment in rooting out the distribution of drugs to communities in the province, he said.
African News Agency/ANA