Pretoria – South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) has arrested a police constable stationed at Barberton in Mpumalanga province for his involvement in the smuggling of dagga from neighbouring Eswatini.
Constable Bhekimuzi Evans Dlamini, 27, based at the Barberton station, appeared in a magistrate’s court on Wednesday after he was arrested in Nelspruit, Hawks provincial spokeswoman Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi said.
“It is alleged that the suspect recruited or hired some guys to smuggle dagga (from Eswatini) to South Africa. On the April 12 2020 Dlamini was found transporting two guys with his private vehicle who were in possession of dagga,” she said.
The two men in Dlamini’s car were arrested for being in possession of the cannabis, but Sekgotodi said they were later “released for no apparent reasons”.
The Hawks probed the relationship between Dlamini and the two suspects, and his involvement in the matter.
“Investigations linked Dlamini with the crime scene. The department of justice issued the warrant of arrest to summon him to court,” said Sekgotodi.
On Wednesday, the Barberton magistrate’s court released Dlamini on R1000 bail and postponed the matter to January 21.
In July, South African Police Service officers in a marked Mpumalanga Flying Squad vehicle were arrested in Springs, Gauteng while transporting dagga and money they had just confiscated from drug dealers.
After being quizzed and searched by police officers at a roadblock, occupants of a vehicle revealed that a consignment of dagga had been taken from them by police officers in a marked vehicle from Secunda in Mpumalanga, Gauteng police spokeswoman Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said at the time.
The flying squad unit members had allegedly also demanded and taken a sum of money, Peters said.
Police officers at the roadblock realised that the flying squad vehicle had passed through the roadblock a few minutes earlier, and set off in pursuit, cornering their Mpumalanga counterparts at a road intersection in Springs and arresting them on the spot.
African News Agency (ANA)