POLICE EYE BORDERS AS DRUGS FLOW INTO SA

Oh well done to all the police and those involved in catching these people - they deserve everything that they get and then some. How sad that some people feel the need to make their money from the pain and suffering of others.

They deal in death and have no conscience about doing it - they must be punished to the fullest extent of the law

Police eye borders as drugs flow into SA

January 08 2007 at 04:56AM

By Botho Molosankwe

Police say desperate syndicates are resorting to smuggling drugs into the country in their underwear or in cocaine-filled condoms and are even using pensioners as smugglers. Masquerading as returning holidaymakers, many members of drug syndicates have been bust mainly at the Lebombo border post, between South Africa and Mozambique, and Beit Bridge, which connects South Africa and Zimbabwe. Over the weekend a Ghanaian man was arrested at the Beit Bridge border, after he was found in possession of cocaine worth R500 000.

'Police have impounded various types of contraband'

National police spokesperson Captain Dennis Adriao said police found 24 cocaine bullets in the man's luggage when they searched a bus that entered the country from Zimbabwe. This was the latest in a number of successes in the past month after police intensified their operations at ports of entry.

"In the past couple of weeks, police have impounded various types of contraband, from dagga and heroin to uncut diamonds, hijacked vehicles and arms and ammunition," Adriao said. The Ghanaian was expected to appear in a Limpopo court on Monday. Nine stolen vehicles worth about R630 000 were intercepted at the border recently, as were diamonds worth at least R10 000.

'They think that border points will be an easy way...'

Adriao said some smugglers put drugs in their underwear, as they believed no one would be brave enough to search their private parts. Others go through the painful process of swallowing condoms filled with drugs to try to evade police. But Adriao said police had the technology to pick up the concealed condoms, and added that whatever methods they used, drug syndicates had been arrested for being in possession of drugs at border posts across the country.

Food, he said, was another method that people used to try to smuggle drugs, but they also had been caught. "They think that border points will be an easy way to smuggle drugs into the country but they do not know that we have technology and dogs that detect narcotics. "We have realised that elderly people were usually being used by drug syndicates to smuggle drugs into the country. "Desperation is the main reason the elderly take the offer," he said. Police had also caught illegal immigrants who had committed serious crimes in South Africa, who went back to their countries and tried to get back into South Africa illegally. As people return to Joburg after the festive season, Adriao said police were expecting more people who might try to smuggle drugs and stolen goods across the borders. But he assured: "We are prepared."

In another incident, Sapa reported that three women and two men have been arrested for possession of drugs after police found Ecstasy and Mandrax tablets at a house in Honeydew, north-west of Johannesburg. Provincial police Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said the arrests were made on Saturday night after police received a tip-off that drugs were being sold from a house in Cosmo City, Honeydew. Twelve bags of chemicals used to manufacture Mandrax tablets were also impounded, Mariemuthoo said. The total estimated street value of the drugs and the chemicals found was R3-million. The five people arrested are expected to appear in the Randburg magistrate's court soon, said Mariemuthoo.
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on January 08, 2007