The two men caught at the accident scene transporting mandrax tablets on N2 near Jeffreys Bay in April 2017, were both sentenced to an effective eight years imprisonment in the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, 27 February 2020.
On Thursday, 6 April 2017, around 07:00, a 45-year-old Ibrahim Doctor Nkurunziza and 30-year-old Gadusi Wani Matangalo with two female passengers were traveling on the N2 in a white Honda Ballade. A driver of the vehicle lost control and it veered off the road near Jeffreys Bay. At the scene, an alert traffic officer, who witnessed Nkurunziza removing a suspicious parcel from a Honda Ballade into the boot of another vehicle, a white Opel Corsa that had just arrived at the scene.
An alert officer informed the police, who immediately requested to search the two vehicles.
Inside an Opel Corsa a total of 1032 mandrax tablets were found stashed in plastic bags with a street value of R61 920 and five suspects were nabbed for dealing in mandrax. An investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Nolubabalo Bonase, who did a thorough investigative work managed to link two of the five suspects on the case, which led to their conviction on Friday, 1 November 2019.
The other three suspects could not be linked to the crime and were acquitted. A court also made a judgment for a Honda Ballade that was used in transporting the mandrax tablets to be forfeited to the state.
Humansdorp Cluster Commander, Brigadier John Lebok welcomed the sentence. “This sentence is serving as a deterrent to those who are involved in selling illicit drugs. It must be noted that in some instances offenders could even forfeit their houses to the state. Let me also extend my appreciation to the traffic officer for his alertness, and to the investigating officer for her sterling work on the case,” added Brig Lebok.
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