This morning members attached to the Cape Town K9 Unit and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) observed a suspicious vehicle with two occupants. At 09:10 the vehicle, a Volkswagen Golf, pulled over in a parking bay off Voortrekker road and the two men got out of the vehicle.
The members approached the two men and noticed a blanket covering the back seat. Upon searching the vehicle plastic bags containing wet shucked abalone were found under the blanket and in the front passenger side of the vehicle. Upon questioning the men it appeared to be a delivery. A while thereafter a man arrived in a Nissan Almera, apparently to collect the abalone.
A preliminary investigation led the members to a warehouse in Huguenot Street, Parow, where they discovered an illegal abalone processing facility. In one area they recovered a large steel cooking pot, gas cylinders, burners and containers. Alongside it was a drying room with filled with a substantial amount of abalone on shelves, being dried, and in a corner on the ground there was a large amount of dried abalone.
In total, 12 295 units of dried abalone and 1222 units of wet shucked abalone were seized, worth an estimated street value of R2.5 million.
All three men aged 28, 35 and 42 years old were arrested and both vehicles seized. The suspects will appear in the Parow Magistrates’ Court on Friday 24 February 2017 on charges under the Living Marine Resources Act, including the illegal possession and transportation of abalone.
SAPS management applaud these large seizures of our living marine resources which are being looted by syndicates.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
