HAWKS ARREST TWO MEN AT HOME DRUG FACTORY
Daily Voice
Reporter: Shellee Geduld
TWO men have appeared in court after they were bust running an illegal drug manufacturing lab worth R20 million. Members of the police’s elite Hawks unit stormed a house in Vlei Road, Durbanville, at about 8.20pm on Monday. Inside, they found chemicals and equipment worth millions used to make tik. Several pots and buckets with the drug at various stages of completion were also found on the property. Cops dressed in white laboratory suits and gas masks worked through the night to document everything. Police spokesman Colonel Billy Jones says the raid was part of their clampdown on illegal drug activites. “Members of the Hawks in the Western Cape executed a search operation at the house from late Monday night until the early hours of Tuesday morning,” says Jones. “During the search they found a drug laboratory in the garage on the premises.” Jones says police seized a large amount of tik, various chemicals and equipment that is used in the manufacure of the drug. “The estimate value of the tik, chemicals and equpment is R20 million,” says Jones. Two men, a 38-year-old from Kroonstad and a 40-year-old Nigerian national, were arrested during the raid. They appeared in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court yesterday where they face charges of manufacturing and dealing in drugs. This was no small-time operation. The masterminds behind the poison-producing factory were clearly intent on selling this evil all over the Flats where the drug has a choke-hold on our people. These men are worse than the small-time tik dealers in our neighbourhoods. The two suspects are far more dangerous because they make and supply the drug to the merchants in our communities. If we can eradicate this source of evil, then we are on our way to beating the tik demon. The only problem is that we do not know where to start looking. They are not setting up shop in Flats neighboorhoods where the drug is as easy to buy as a lollipop. Instead, they are hidden in larney areas where they can cook their poison in peace. The court must have no mercy on these evil men.