Overview
- Customs officers working with the South African Revenue Service and the Hawks inspected a South America-origin vessel at the Port of Durban and found 30 bricks of cocaine concealed in a container that showed signs of tampering.
- A mobile testing kit used on site indicated the seized substance was pure cocaine and officials launched a detailed follow-up inspection and investigation.
- The shipboard discovery follows a separate interception at the same port days earlier in which customs and police found about 90 kilograms of cocaine hidden in trucks offloaded from a vessel originating in Brazil.
- Authorities say the operations used intelligence-led risk profiling, detector dogs and targeted physical checks, and senior officials pledged to pursue suspects across borders and tighten controls at ports of entry.
- Durban’s status as a busy regional gateway makes it attractive to organised crime groups that use container concealment and tampering, and police investigations will focus on tracing origin points, intermediaries and possible local links to trafficking networks.