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By IOL Reporter 
4h ago
On its website, the luxurious Simbithi Eco Estate, about 50 km north of Durban, describes the 430 hectare estate as the “embodiment” of home life in a “residential community that harmoniously coexists with wildlife and nature. “.
However, on Tuesday night, beyond the manicured “world-class golf course,” members of the Hawks organized crime unit smashed the facade when they raided one of the multi-million dollar units where they discovered drugs worth R154m.
The Hawks were accompanied by members of the Umhali SAPS and K9 Unit.
Armed with a search warrant, after weeks of surveillance, officers pounced on the empty property and discovered several bags in rooms filled with chemicals and powders used to make mandrax and heroin.
No one was present at the home when the police moved in, but according to sources close to the investigation, the arrests are imminent shortly.
This is the second multi-million dollar drug bust in KwaZulu-Natal in less than a week.
Last Wednesday, members of Richard’s Bay Hawks found 342 kg of heroin worth R87m hidden in a secret compartment of a truck from Mozambique heading towards Durban.
Tuesday’s raid on the luxury Simbithi estate made a huge dent in South Africa’s drug trade, sources said.
The house was being primarily used as a storage facility for key ingredients in the manufacture of illicit narcotics and its discovery had disrupted the supply chain of the illicit drug industry, a law enforcement source said.
According to officers, in a garage at the facility, they found 200 50-kg bags of suspected anthranilic acid.
Anthranilic acid is a precursor to produce methaqualone, more commonly known by its street name, mandrax.
Moving to the lounge area, 156.25 kg of powdered mandrax were found for a total of 3900 kg.
According to police sources, approximately 770 tablets can be produced from 1 kg of mandrax powder and the total number of mandrax tablets that can be produced from 39 00 kg of powder is estimated at 300 3000.
The officers then went to the bedrooms of the house and had to go through a locked door.
Here they found thousands of heroin capsules, mandrax tablets, and powdered heroin.
In total, the police discovered more than 170,000 capsules, 5.1 kg of heroin in Lavazza coffee packages, 1.5 kg of heroin in a plastic package, and 1 kg of heroin in a plastic Tupperware.
According to the police, the total transport estimate is valued at R154.9 million.
The KZN police media center had not responded with official comment at the time of publication.
Daily News
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